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Jane is a Space Maestro! For other teachers — here is the summary of this school’s Space Week actions: https://junior.renmoreschool.com/space-week-2021/
A nice way to demonstrate how the earth rotates causing difference shadows would be to pair the class up and get the children to stand and the other outline the shadow that it casts. This activity can then be repeated in the afternoon from the exact same spot. the shadow outline or shape should have changed indicating how the earth moves and rotates
Do you have a nice area in the school grounds where you can do this? Even drawing the children’s attention to the position of the Sun at different times of day can help them to understand that the Sun appears to move across the sky.
I like to ask schools – which way do the windows in your classroom face? Do you get the Sun in the mornings? (east) in the afternoons? (west) not at all? (north).
Sharon – I had to look up the Silly Symphony.
I like matching the job title to the activities the children will be carrying out. Will you actually test the strength of the materials in a wind tunnel/ with a fan? – that would be a nice way to link to the story of the 3 Little Pigs.
Deirdre — I’d definitely show possible bridge designs from https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/design_a_bridge.pdf,
and an extension could ask the children to design a totally different type of bridge — and compare does it work as well as the others.
We will collect various size plastic bottles to compare and contrast the force
Karina: How will you compare the force? Will you ask each child to squeeze as hard as they can? There is scope for a great discussion with the children about comparing the force that they apply to the bottle with the force that another child uses — are they the same? how could they be measured? is there another way to squeeze the bottles that is more consistent?
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?
