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Joey – do you have a link to Space Dogs — my google is returning a movie with that title.
If you mention space dogs, then be prepared to talk about Laika, and her sad story of her one way trip to space. There are some humans who are considering being the first humans on Mars – and right now, that would be a one way trip. Would you travel to Mars if you knew you could never come back? How is that different or the same to people who left Ireland in the last few centuries, knowing they would never return….
Karen – this engineers week resource from 2021 has a completed framework for inquiry for design a raincoat.
As you have outlined, when carrying out a design and make activity with children, the sections of the framework under Investigate change in emphasis slightly:
STARTER QUESTION > EXPLORE
PREDICTION > PLAN
CONDUCTING THE INVESTIGATION> MAKE
SHARING / INTERPRETING DATA > EVALUATEYou have done a great job of detailing how the children will follow each of those steps.
May your whiteboard behave, your internet stay connected, and your children enjoy and learn from the videos! APOD is great due to the variety of images it has, and the explanation that the teacher can access (admittedly, far beyond primary child level). Webb telescope images should continue to arrive and astound – so keep an eye out for those too.
Aoife – you can find some nice images of arctic plants in the PolarStar material – and some of it is in Irish. Polar regions really bring home seasons — given how severe their winter is, compared to summer.
Aoife – I love the idea of including solar system exploration. You could tell the children that they have to decide which space mission is going to be built and launched– which planet will it go to? what will it try to find out?
This happens every few years in all the major space agencies – there are always more proposals than there is money – so different mission ideas are developed, but only one or two actually get built.
Aoife – there is also the chance to throw in a little bit of science fiction ideas — since space is so vast, how did the spacecraft get to Earth? (I expect at least one child will tell you it was through a worm-hole!)
John – do you think that the children would reply — “we like doing experiments?”
I like the Milo and Marvin as a trigger – but I would hope that children would wonder and question and try out variations on their activities, rather than just being content with the activity as designed and explained.
so for the alka seltzer rocket — it’s a start – and children should take it further.
Denise – what a great collection of ideas for your class, I’m with Roisin on agreeing how much children would enjoy!
Denise – do you have a link to the poem: Planet Roll Call?
Have you a particular set of planet images you like? I acquired a set of planet lithographs a few years ago and have used them over and over again, as well as this simple poster from ESA:
Joey – how much variety do you have between the balloons? They could be different sizes, different shapes, different colours – and could be put in different places in the classroom, or handled differently … This could lead to a great discussion about which factor is the most important – and plenty of opportunity for further explorations.
Great combination of ideas — I like the idea of the astronauts encountering the aliens. I’m in Canada right now and keep seeing this ad on the television: https://youtu.be/m0rNcjhFeQA
I wonder if your children will say “I’d like to come home now!”
John, a lot of pedagogy has been done on the idea of real world examples in teaching – and I agree with you that they are powerful ways to engage children. I found this video from ESA – is this the one you found?
