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Shona – Shane is a real gent, just a lovely guy who visited Ireland and did quite a bit of outreach at the time. We had him to Blackrock Castle to supervise a rocket launching event! You may not be able to source a current astronaut to talk to your children – there have only ever been 500 of them (all countries, since 1961, when the first astro- and cosmonauts launched to space for the first time!). But, there are plenty of videos that they have made, and sometimes a European, American or Canadian astronaut does visit and in person interactions are possible.
Space Week helps to organise the “ESERO Space Goes to School” – this runs a few times each year and may be a way to connect your children to working in a space related career.
Christine – have you seen Chris Hadfield’s photograph book: You Are Here? also described by Chris in this video, check out how lovely Ireland looks!
If the children have family abroad, you might ask them to find that location on a globe – and then ask them – which way up are the people there standing?
Christine, it is great how you have explicitly connected our understanding of Martian conditions to how the children might design their Martian. Google Mars from Google Earth is superb, and you might use some of the pictures from A Martian Landscape to show the children what Mars does look like. Also check the images coming from the more recent American rovers that are exploring Mars right now.
Angela – it’s great to use this a skills activity – close observation of its appearance is so valuable. I remember setting this for a class of 12 year olds – and one of them brought in her homework with the Moon drawn as a pie with 1/4 taken out of it. She’d heard the words 1st quarter and 3rd quarter but hadn’t realized that meant how far around the Earth the Moon was in its orbit! I made her observe again the next week!
Fiona, I like how you have centred this on the Sun’s daily motion causing shadows to move. I expect you would then allow plenty of exploration of shadows and how, in Ireland, we sometimes don’t see our shadows clearly due to cloudy weather.
If you have a drawing of a compass – you could make the sundial on the compass!
Michael – I agree – and I always emphasize the skill of observation — close observation allows a child to ask more questions – because they have noticed more and wondered more.
Michael- great idea to incorporate alien music — this could link so well with Science: sound> explore ways of making different sounds using a variety of materials, and what makes us classify a sound as being “earth-like” or “alien-like”. I once had the opportunity to use a theremin – I wasn’t as good as this example:
Nell – do you have a link to the song? My google is giving me the Sting song: Englishman in New York!
How would you encourage children to use their science understanding of what life is and what life needs in designing their aliens? If they speak – do they have a mouth to make sounds? do they have ears to listen with? Do they make sounds that we can hear?
What aliens eat is a lovely idea — if you think of science fiction stories about what humans might eat in the future (remember the cubes from Star Trek?)…
Fiona – it can also be fun to hang them under a table – and the children can lie on their backs and describe what they see!
You can also introduce a constellation hunt with these pre-made star scenes from Astronomy Society of the Pacific— can the children find the shapes?
Thanks for sharing the video link, it reminds me of the old favourite “Powers of Ten” – which is aimed at adults/ older children:
Making constellations with paper cups works really nicely – and children can explore how sharp the “stars” appear depending on the size of the hole they stab. I tend to give them quite narrow diameter wooden skewers rather than pencils.
Nessa – adding in aeroplanes is very interesting, since one of the definitions of space is that it is where aircraft cannot use aerodynamics to get lift. This referred to as the Kármán line, and is 100km up.
This also means that rockets don’t need to be particularly aerodynamic – since those forces will only act on the rocket as they move through the air – once they are in space, there is almost no air (ish – there is still a little bit – which does slow the ISS a bit).
Nessa – would you also include altitude and how it affects temperature? You can access the weather report for Mount Kilimanjaro, and see that this week, it is due to snow and be -7!
I include this mountain, since it is very close to the Equator, yet the altitude makes it very cold.
Nell – you have nicely included maths, PE and music. I know that the science of planets is tricky for young children, but you could include the different colours of the planets, and close observation of photographs (using the See, Think, Wonder approach to thinking skills) to help draw out what they notice and what they think might be different from one planet to another.
Aoife: here is the Moon seen this morning: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vkZHS7rAnuwxCF9Q7
and it will be last quarter around September 17 and again October 17, 2022.
The appearance of the Moon and the different shapes / craters / mare are all interesting to explore, and making a textured surface for the children to see how impacts make craters really lets them test out their understanding.
Do check different types of sand — if you use very fine playground sand, it is often too silky and runs rather than makes craters. You could try some coarser builder’s sand, although when I buy it, it is often very wet and needs to be dried out before use.
