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Hannah – there is a lot of discussion right now about the next astronauts to go to the Moon. The mission is known as Artemis and launch dates for the first mission to test the systems have just been announced for the end of August / early September for an un-crewed mission to the Moon!!!
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1
Meadhbh – I like the range of questions you have planned to ask the children. I think it would be interesting if any of them mention greenhouses / windows as ways to “keep the heat” in.
I also wonder if they think the Sun has the same heating effect on a cold day? Could you do this outside in winter on a sunny day too?
Hannah. I’m glad you found the glance cards useful – I like to have them next to me when I am planning. Stellarium is a powerful tool and I’d love to hear how your colleagues might use it in the school year.
this seems like great fun, with so much opportunity for language and descriptions linked to their thinking about the possibilities of life elsewhere. I have also asked children if they think we would recognise life on another planet — since there are such extremes of different types of life here, would we even know if we met an alien? I have shown pictures of a dried bean, a candle, a robot, a baby, a plant and a plastic spider to children and asked them — is it alive?
What a cool fact Deirdre — I didn’t know that, so looked it up to find: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Astronomers+Say%3A+Centre+Of+The+Milky+Way+Galaxy+Is+Raspberry+Flavoured-a0393137964
Apparently the new limited edition Coca Cola flavour is also “space-flavoured”
Marie, I like how you have incorporated the inquiry framework with a lovely trigger, plenty of opportunity for the children to wonder and explore, and a key activity that they can investigate to deepen their understanding of colour. The technology usage at the end is a nice touch.
Thanks for sharing your mind map, don’t forget to keep adding to it over this course.
I really like how you have incorporated a range of questions that will provoke thinking about their aliens and how they might live/move etc.
You could even ask the children to group aliens into ones that might live on the same planet!
Hannah – would you use https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/design_a_bridge.pdf ?
I have used it with 8-10 year-olds and they had a hard time applying learning from a warm up activity on triangles to their bridge design. Will your activity be more about the strength of materials, or more about the structural assembly of the bridge?
The primaryscience activity suggests restricting the material to paper, so that structure is the key focus. If you use different materials, then you might want to use a common design to allow for comparison.
Hi Aoife – there is an ESERO Activity: Does Saturn Float? that adds a space spin to this activity. It is designed for young children, so you might want to use it early in the year with a 1st class, or adapt it a bit for later in the year.
Design a Boat goes a little bit into some trigger questions and background information. An additional activity to really get children thinking about this is to ask them to push an inflated beach ball down into a large bucket of water. Can they feel the ball pushing back on them? what must be pushing on the ball? etc….
Hi Aisling, welcome to the course. Do you have a favourite astronaut? I am a fan of fellow Canadian Chris Hadfield – he of the most excellent moustache and cooking demos. (https://youtu.be/AZx0RIV0wss)
what a lovely detailed list of ways to engage children with the Moon! and on 20 July too!
At recent conference we asked participants (who were all teachers) to model the Moon going around the Earth at the same time as the Earth & Moon went around the Sun. Great fun, with lots of discussion from the more astronomy confident teachers with the others, and plenty of motion.
Hi Laura – this activity allows the children to wonder and explore a great deal. Is there a particular science question that they might find out more about?
The trees in different seasons booklet from Science Week 2018 had Investigating Fruit as an activity, and you can find it as a stand alone in English and Irish.
Happy Moon Landing Day everyone!!
See more about how we are trying to return to the Moon here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/First_steps_returning_humanity_to_the_Moonand explore classroom ideas with https://mooncampchallenge.org/resources-discovery/
Welcome Marie – plenty of other teachers of senior infants here, so I hope you can share ideas and engage through this forum.
Do you know this song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaEsMmWBTp4
