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I think an important part of the lesson is giving lots of opportunities for children to ask questions and also provide questions that they can explore and investigate themselves.
I 100% agree with you on this Barbara. The key focus of inquiry learning for science is for the children to wonder and question how the world works – and to test out for themselves if it does work they way they think it works.
Marie- I like the idea of repeating the shadow activity at different times of the year – particularly if you take photos of the children and their shadows. This could also act as a record of how much the children grow during the year!
Laura – I have made simple flying saucers by stapling two 15cm paper plates together. I found this other way of making a flying saucer – but haven’t tried it.
Aoife & Laura – Dancing raisins is a simple but very effective activity. And even if your fizzy liquid loses its fizz, then the children can explain why the raisins stop dancing.
I try to get a few bottles of different fizzy drinks so that children can wonder – does it work with all types of fizzy drinks?
Aoife – the making little models of houses is very satisfying – and has scope for you to focus on whichever aspect of their design that suits — you can ask the children to concentrate on the colours / the shapes / the “3-D-ness” etc.
Karina – the link between the children’s science skills and their content knowledge is at the heart of the inquiry approach. I hope you find that the children gain specific content understanding through the application of their science investigation skills.
Have you tried making a solar oven? I once followed instructions to make one from a pizza box – this looks to be a simpler version.
We would discuss them and things that are the same/different or things they have and why they need those things
which things do you think your children will identify? do you think they will focus on senses, or motion, or adaptations to the alien world? There is scope to link this to the planets in our solar system and how their temperatures are quite different depending on where they are relative to the Sun – nearer the Sun the planets are hotter than those further away from the Sun (ish — Venus doesn’t quite fit this pattern!)
Enya – are these the ones you are referring to? https://thestemlaboratory.com/lego-challenge-cards/
I also saw that engineers week 2022 had challenges, but I can’t access them now — did anyone else manage to get them at the time?
Aisling – can you check the sharing settings on Miro, you mind map is not visible.
I like how you have considered how the children will record their findings — another way is suggested in the ESERO activity Does Saturn Float?
Laura, I agree that prompting the children to consider which features their aliens will need to live in certain types of places brings in science thinking. They might need examples of living creatures on Earth – and then this could provoke them to think of adaptations to environments.
for sure – and Adam is such a nice kid. I know his Dad and have met Adam a few times. The family are space mad!!
Aisling – selecting the toy can give rise to so many questions… is it easier to trace the shadow of a “sharp-edge” toy, or a fuzzy soft toy? what do you think? why?….
Enya – this history of time telling is really interesting – did you know “After 1916 in Ireland, depending on where you were, clocks could show four different times: Dunsink, Greenwich, and the summer variations on either, with a maximum difference of an hour and 25 minutes.” (source, this article from Irish Times 2013)
