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Darragh, I really like how you have based this on the children’s observations of the world around them! I travel to schools with our portable planetarium, and will often ask children which way their classroom faces– is it east/west/north/south. They often don’t know, so I’ll ask them: do they get the sunlight in the room in the morning (E), in the middle of the day (S), in the afternoon (W), or not at all (N)? Many of them haven’t ever thought through the changing position of the sun in the sky and how it affects the brightness of the room they are in!
I’ll also ask -which way does your bedroom / living room face? What time of day is it brightest in the room?
Julieanne – I like the engaging activity at the start — playing shadow tag is fun – and the children can learn by playing – they might notice that the shadow is only ever on one side of them, that the shadow touches them if they are standing on the ground, that the shadow is dark, and if your eyes are in someone else’s shadow, then you can’t see the Sun!
All of those could then be more formally explored in the classroom with torches.
Nell – rocket mouse is very straightforward, but fun for all young children, and really lets them explore what they think is making the mouse launch and how to get it to…. go higher, go further, land on a target etc.
They can explore – does mouse fly better with a tail, or without? with ears or without? and if you make the mice different colours – is the red mouse better than the blue mouse?
The straw rocket requires more fine motor skills – most 2nd class children can manage it but might need a bit of help with the rolling of the paper around the pencil.
Julieanne – what a lovely way to encourage imagination. You can encourage the children to apply their science thinking by evaluating their aliens in terms of the planets of the solar system – which planet might each alien come from? Are the conditions on that planet suitable for aliens? Is it too hot there? or too cold there? How might different aliens be suited to different habitats.
I’ve had children make foil aliens before- and we had a great time imagining which aliens would be found together – and which must be from different planets! The reasons they gave were great – and showed a high level of imagination combined with reasoning.
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?