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Hi Christine,
with your familiarity with the Curious Minds/ESER Framework it is great to see how you would use it in the classroom.
This type of activity where there is a “catchy” demo (putting the Vaseline on children’s hands) can also be structured to support deeper science understanding by having the demo as part of the wonder/explore or even as the prompt itself.
Then the children might wonder – ‘does more Vaseline make me more waterproof?’ and make their prediction about that aspect of the activity and then try it out to see if they were right.
Another child might wonder ‘I think that as long as there is some Vaseline you’ll be waterproof and it doesn’t matter how much’ and investigate that.
For pictures of the solar system I like to use this NASA image
and ask the children – is this a good picture or a bad picture? What does it show well and what does it not show so well? {think about size/scale/distance etc}
Which Planet Song video would you use?
Doing the solar system in collage is lovely. I’ve also used Model Magic (available from Art and Hobby) to make small planets.
Hi Fiona,
If your classroom faces the right direction you can draw the children’s attention to the Sun shining in the window at any time of year! I often ask children when I take the StarDome out to a school which way their classroom faces. I get a lot of blank stares, so I ask – what time of day does teacher have to close the blinds on a sunny day?
If in the morning – your classroom faces east.
If in the middle of the day – your classroom faces south.
If in the afternoon – your classroom faces west.
You could even ask children if their kitchen faces east – do they get the sun in the morning when they have breakfast? Survey the class and see how many have this.
Hi Paula,
Lots of great ideas there, and the pictures can be used as references and added to over the year for the children to capture how their understanding has changed.
Hi Carol Anne,
Using physical models to show the Earth and the light of day/lack of light for night is so important.
If you ask young children why is it dark at night you often get an answer related to what people do at night – “It’s dark so people can sleep” – and it takes some time for children to realise that they can explain what is happening to make it dark rather than giving their own child-centred explanation.
Do you have particular day and night images that you use?
The 6-E inquiry steps you have used are very similar to the Curious Minds/ESERO Framework for Inquiry that has been developed in Ireland.
Key is the wondering and exploring before children use their science understanding to predict and investigate.
I have done a similar activity and used masking tape rolls to be the craters and asked children: I wonder when the shadows of the craters will be easiest to see? I wonder where the Sun will be when the shadows are longest?
For older children you could link this to the phase of the Moon and how 1st quarter Moon images have great shadows on the terminator.
Thanks for sharing that video link Laura – it has lots of information about the rovers.
I wonder if children today aren’t as excited, since there are so many functioning rovers on Mars that they are just common place.
We had Dr Fuk Li share an overview of the rovers 14 years ago! This was before some of them were delayed. I like seeing them all together so that you can get a sense of the scale of them.
Thanks for sharing this Barbara. Slopes is a great activity.
I vary it slightly by using pipe lagging, cut in half and given out in 1m lengths. Children can then make very long marble runs and really get a sense of how the height at the start of the tube affects the speed of the marble along the run
Hi Paula,
Your plan clearly references the Inquiry process as outlined in the Framework for Inquiry. The play with the plasticine is essential for them to be able to make a prediction, so I’d let them have some directed play at the beginning as they try to shape the plasticine so that it doesn’t sink – and then I’d say “I wonder if this could be a boat?” and then let them share their predictions about the boat shape and which boat will be best.
Hi Sean,
Mars as a topic is supported by some of the ESERO resources, and spaceweek.ie has a Mars resource in English and Irish. ESA have this excellent resource too.
Google Earth (choose Mars at the top) can let children view Mars up close and understand the environment that their habitat has to withstand.
A habitat is an example of using the Framework for Inquiry to support Design and make, so the plan is vital. This is how they will connect their science understanding to their design skills.
Hi Sarah,
cooking as inquiry – brilliant!
I can see that children might try different amounts of melting time — does it get melted a lot, a little? … trying to quantify that is great maths.
What happens if you have too much chocolate and not enough rice krispies… again, really simple to predict and test.
Beautiful links to measures. I’d offer different pre-measured amounts for the younger children, and bowls and different measures for older children.
Hi Sean,
I like that space fact. I find even more mind blowing is the fact that a millions sounds like such a big number, but you can have a million of something in your classroom really easily.
I like showing a 1-cm cube and then make a bigger cube from 3 meter sticks (two on the floor and 1 at right angles to them – showing three sides of a cube – ask them to imagine the other sides).
How many cubic cm are in the cubic m….? (100*10o*100 = 1 million).
Claire,
I love the way you have brought interpreting the story to life with the simple task of “describe the aliens” from the description.
“they have strange hair upon their heads!”
Here’s Julia Donaldson reading her story – you’d have to be careful not to show the pictures though.
Mary,
is there a particular way you might use this activity in Aistear teaching?
The prompt might arise from tidying up the classroom, or you might place a plastic cup in a precarious position and give it a nudge when the time is right.
What materials would you have handy in the classroom or would you be able to get easily?
Hi Laura,
I love this space fact, and even more the riff on it from the science cartoon XKCD “What If?“
