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Triona, this is a lovely cross-curricular activity, can you add more on how you could bring science inquiry into this for your Junior Infants? Is there part of the activity that lends itself to science investigation?
Treasa, what a lovely connection to materials that you have in the classroom, that the children are already familiar with. I like how you have connected seasonal change, different parts of the world, temperature and suitable clothing as well as animals!
Aoife — what a lovely look at the rocket mouse activity. I’d suggest plenty of bottles- children can get quite enthusiastic and the thicker walled plastic milk bottles do tend to crack.
I’d suggest only giving out a few bottles at a time — the “whack – launch” is pretty loud and if everyone is launching at the same time, then who is measuring how high it goes?
Hi Darragh – from experience, fair testing on this one is a bit tricky – so be prepared for discussions about “this one didn’t go as far as it should, because the cap came off early!”
I find that the plastic containers you use change after a few launches. The cap tends to come off much easier – maybe they get warmer from hands handling them? or they get wetter from the launches?
Best work around I have found is to try to have as many identical launchers as you can (the fizzy vitamin tablet tubes are ideal).
Rachel – I love the way you have linked across so much of the curriculum – and still have plenty of science (this is a science-ish course!). Great stuff.
Karen – may I share your great suggestions as part of this years “how to do space week with junior classes” ?
You can apply for a speaker to Zoom into your classroom with
http://www.spaceweek.ie/for-organisers/for-teachers/space-speaker-in-your-classroom/
this link will be updated with the space week speakers in late August, getting ready for space week in early October.
Great– and please register any event you have at your school on spaceweek.ie — you can even register now and add the details a bit later.
oh – alien passports? would it have their photo? their date of birth? where they were born… how lovely and a great record of the alien.
Paddy – we might check with Jane Shimuzu – I know she does rockets every year at a junior school, where the oldest class are 2nd! I agree that younger children will need some extra supervision, but the pop-fizz rocket is grand to set off, as long as everyone backs up a few paces at launch. Perhaps have a launch area that is clearly marked, with only once group launching as the rest of the class waits for their turn?
Could you use videos of the Apollo Astronauts on the Moon? Here is a short one showing a jump: https://youtu.be/g5aPoRtF2vw
Meadhbh – Do they start by checking if the various materials float or sink? I ask this, since many boats are made of materials that would sink, except for how they are assembled to make the boat. It might be better to refer to this as a raft.
Sinéad, can you grant access to that board? I have been able to see other participant’s boards, but that link throws out “No access to board”.
Hi Sinéad, you might have seen earlier the link to the XKCD cartoon about grains of sand and stars: https://what-if.xkcd.com/83/, for teachers, but interesting.
Here is a link to an article from ESA that describes how we are trying to count the number of stars: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Herschel/How_many_stars_are_there_in_the_Universe