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Deirdre,
you have shared a detailed activity plan, and I am sure that your enthusiasm for the topic will make it exciting for your own class. And isn’t Cape Canaveral neat! (I went there first as a 13 year old, with my family in Florida for Christmas).
Hi Michelle,
this is indeed a very exciting event, with lots of active learning. I like to make groups of 3 with one bottle between them – that way each child has lots of goes, but there are not to many mice in the air at the same time, and the noise is a bit less!
Hi Olivia,
giving 2nd class children a taste of the 3rd/4th class ideas of
investigate the pushing force of water / design and make a boat or raft using an increasing variety of materials, tools and craft-handling skills.
can be super. I tend to use just paper, and see if they can work out the 1st requirement of not letting the water in! Paper is also lightweight, so will float pretty much. Since the science behind why boats float is quite tricky (getting into the volume of the displaced water provides an upwards force called buoyancy) – I tend to like to make rafts first that pretty much float on the surface.
Muireann,
the Geography Curriculum names 2 constellations in the exemplars for 5th and 6th class – the Great Bear and Pole Star, Orion.
So please try to point those out from an early age. Ursa Major is visible all year round, and children can use the Spaceweek.ie resource (https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Draw-Your-Own-Constellation.pdf) to make their own shape for the Plough, Orion is visible in the early evening in January – April.
Older children might explore how the position of the Plough tells you the time of night, with this Plough Clock.
Padraig,
you have described a detailed Engage set of activities for children around the theme of the solar system. Children should be encouraged to share what they know and to pose simple questions around what they would like to know more about.
The formation of the solar system is an area of science that still has lots of research going on. What I find interesting is that astronomy is such an observational science -we have to look and see, then try to work out why it is the way we see it, then make predictions that fit within that theory and then go looking for evidence of that prediction.
Here are 18 unanswered questions about the solar system.
Clodagh,
we’ve used the make the Moon and the Earth from playdoh for years — often with older children. It is really interesting to see them trying to work out how to divide the playdoh evenly. If they don’t start to figure it out, I suggest rolling a cylinder and then using a ruler to measure the length and to cut off the smallest amount.
Very open maths activity.
I adapted it from here: https://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/classroom/scales.shtml
which also has the whole solar system to scale.
The mind blower for most children (and their teachers) is putting the scale Earth-Moon to the correct distance apart (at the same scale). Most have the Moon very close to the Earth – usually no more than 3 Earth diameter’s away, so when they are told it is 30 Earth diameter’s away there really is some head scratching.
Sarah,
to have this more closely match the science curriculum (Materials >Materials and Change > Heating and Cooling 1st/2nd class)
become aware of and investigate the suitability of different kinds of clothes for variations in temperature
recognise that some fabrics keep us warmer than others
design and make or assemble an outfit for someone who is going on holiday to a very warm or cold placethe children could be enabled to test the various clothing to see if it keeps them warm or cool. This can be linked to heat transfer – but heat transfer is mostly covered in 5th and 6th class, so I’d keep this simple.
Hi Michelle,
I’m glad you have shared your experience with ramps – I also make marble runs with pipe insulation cut in half lengthways.
Please see this site about ramps, where they argue that ramps and pathways is one of the best activities for teaching forces and inquiry science with young children.
They found
Ramps and Pathways gives children endless possibilities to think and create. They build, test their ramp structures, make adjustments, and try again until they are successful. We have found that children are motivated to engage in this process because of the intriguing nature of the materials.
Summary article here: https://qappd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/fun_physical_science.pdf
Deirdre,
we used to have a sheet of dots that children could use to make their own constellations.
Similar to it are these set of the 3 night sky pictures, with 3 constellations to find from Project Astro – Constellation Detective.
I have these printed A3 size, laminated, and I tape them to the bottom of the table so that children can lie on their backs and look up at the “sky” to find the constellation.
Hi Dolores,
you have clearly engaged with the framework for inquiry and how children can learn science through the stepped structure of the framework.
We used a similar activity with a “life in space” theme in this resource from 2020 – Creeping Colours from Curious Minds was extended to model identifying the signs of life by spectroscopy.
That could make a next step for your early finishers.
Anne,
how will you make different weight mice? I suppose you could try to fix a little bit of blu-tack into the inside of the cone, but I’m not sure there would be much difference given how small the rocket mice are.
Different masses and positioning of the mass on a straw paper rocket is something I do with TY students – and for them the science is a bit tricky.
You can read this teacher level article about how mass and rockets interact and pick up some student centred activities from this great Rockets Educator Guide.
What a lovely silly book
Nice to link the facts that the children may know about the Moon to the picture book.
– they could wonder if the Moon always looks full?
– they could wonder if there are tourist rockets to the Moon? (not yet, but soon!)
Laura,
can you give examples of prompts that you have found suitable? I agree that scenarios work nicely. There has to be some reason why children should want to find out more!
Rachel, how simple and how much fun to re-created huddling on a cold day.
Lots of opportunity for children to express themselves and work out how they can incorporate the views of everyone – and have to consider their own spatial position relative to the group.
Ideally you could photograph this from an upper window of the school and have a record that they could refer to. I’m thinking they could have cards with their names on it and could hold them up so they can see if they were middle (and feeling warmer) or outer edge and feeling cooler.
I wonder if there is a minimum size huddle to feel warm ? and there is a “take the next step”….
Laura,
for Junior Infants this activity lets them share their understanding and check it in a simple way – which is what inquiry learning is all about. Since this likely to be the end of the school year – I wonder if you could return to it with a class the following winter — and help them to look at the more complex ideas of how the temperature depends on sunlight but also on time of year.