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Vanessa – sorry that I missed this post until now — what a great set of activities and extensions – I’d love to include this in the end of summer resource for space week.
Michael – I have made foam rockets down to 1st class, but with a few helpers! The fizzy tablet version can be explored with any container that will hold the pressure and then release it for the flight – this video suggests using sports cap bottles, which are easier to find that film canisters.
Michael – as you make the rockets, try to give options for the children to explore what they understand and how simple changes will make a difference to the rocket. For the fizzy rockets, you could change how much fizzy tablet they use, or how much water is added, or (for an older class), the temperature of the water.
Emma — I think having decorated rocket mice could lead to really interesting discussions about – is that mouse heavier? do that mouse’s ears make it fly better/worse…
Danika – animals in the cold could also connect to shelter for animals in the winter in Ireland. A teacher resource on the polar regions is at polarpedia from Edu Arctic.
Lisa – convection snake also exists as a resource from primaryscience.ie.
this resource suggest that: “The children can develop their own questions about how heat travels and test them.”
and can you check the access on your mind map?
John – please let me know if any of your children want to be architects!
You can bring in science through Properties and characteristics of materials> begin to explore how different materials may be used in the construction of homes suited to their environments,
by providing a range of materials that can act as building materials.
Jamie – I like how you had the children give their criterial for success- a key part of design and make activities.
I agree with infants you will have to lead that discussion and help them agree what a successful launch will be. With rocket mouse I have always used… did it hit the ceiling?
Jamie – what a great idea– seasons across the world are quite different – some areas have dry / rainy instead of the 4 seasons we think of as standard.
Julieanne- what a nice activity on our locality – so much maths, recording, collecting data… Making the connection to weather and shelter is great. There is an ESA resource that builds on this, which could be an extension activity later in the year.
Ashling — introducing simple fair testing to Infants can be done with this activity. For fair testing the children need to consider which different factors affect the mouse jump, and then only change one at time when they compare the heights the mouse moves.
Since the bottles are all different (they have different shapes, sizes, bottle opening, made of different materials…), treat ‘the bottle’ as a variable and only look into each ‘bottle variable’ if the children want to extend the activity.
Providing lots of different bottles means more scope for exploration, but doesn’t make the test fair or not.
Aishling – I’m glad to hear that you would recommend your school take part in Space Week – don’t forget to register your event(s) at http://www.spaceweek.ie/add/
Teresa – it is great to hear from teachers about their own experiences with these activities — and the way the children had more questions and were able to answer them with a little more materials is so much the heart of science learning by inquiry.
Fiona – sounds like a great plan – be sure the register it as an event on spaceweek.ie!