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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!
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.
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?
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)
thanks for sharing the mind map Enya – could you share some of the particular videos of astronauts that your class has enjoyed?
The heat insulation activity might fit in with Animals in the Cold, an activity that appears in module 4.
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
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.
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.
