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Conor,
This Hot and Cold activity from ESERO was originally planned for the youngest classes, with a 1st class you could use it as a prompt and then the children could take the next step by considering if other factors affect the speed with which an ice cube melts.
This could be connected to the concept of temperature, which appears in Science for 1st/2nd class.
• learn that temperature is a measurement of how hot something is
• measure and compare temperatures in different places in the classroom, school and environment.Luke,
you can find a few ways to create a scale model of the solar system using the Solar System resource from spaceweek.ie, in English or Irish.
With a very young class, I’d just concentrate on relative sizes and the related language of big, bigger, biggest. Even for an older class, I’d determine a suitable scale for the size available.
The solar system is remarkably empty, so most scale models have to be over a very large space to get a sense of the distance to the furthest planets, or else the inner planets are almost all on top of each other.
Emma,
there is a nice simple rocket launch sequence in the ISS Education Kit, (download from https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Education/Primary_level_ISS_Education_Kit_-_download)
Please register your class activity plan at https://www.spaceweek.ie/add/
Ciara,
the article: https://www.esa.int/kids/en/learn/Our_Universe/Planets_and_moons/The_Solar_System_and_its_planets
would be good background reading for an older class, and I love the poster and use it all the time.
Carolann,
could you check permissions on the google drive link?
Sorry, unable to open the file at this time. Please check the address and try again.
If you want to share an image, use the little image symbol ^^ and upload it to this forum.
Setting up an Aistear space station seems to be popular, please send me any pictures when you have so we can share them on spaceweek.ie
Aoife,
it’s interesting that you have given the children everyday object to make their shadows ( compared to Luke who has used balls) – that will make a big difference to how the shadows appear.
I like that you have used a prompt ( Show examples of shadows in different settings (e.g., outdoors under the sun, indoors with a lamp).) and have explicitly elicited the children’s understanding by asking
the children what they already know about shadows and how they think shadows are formed.
If they then explain what they expect to happen (their prediction) as a result of their understanding then they are fully carrying out inquiry learning in science.
Hi Clodagh,
I did an activity like this years ago when I was teaching in the UK, with second level students.
I asked them to keep a Moon diary of the shapes they could see (similar to this one : https://www.mayodarkskypark.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MDSP-MoonJournal-v1.pdf )
and had one girl draw me out this shape.
I guess she had looked up the phases of the moon, seen 3rd quarter Moon and not done any actual observing!
Mark, Thanks for sharing such a detailed rockets themed activity outline.
I also like the balloon rockets from Curious Minds, called Rocket Launch in the resources you can download from this module.
Rachael,
I like how you have planned to include their experience in swimming. You could link in how the arm floats that they might have used when they start swimming help them to stay afloat in the water.
Although – in searching for an image that could be used as a prompt, I came across this scary article: https://weaquatics.com/blog/are-arm-floaties-safe/
Emma,
if you do include the solar system to scale, you might adapt from this Space Week Ireland resource:
https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Classroom-Resource-Booklet-Our-Solar-System.pdf
or from the club activity The Solar System Walk: https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Solar-System-Walk.pdf
I have taken groups for walks, counting out each step and sharing our favourite planet facts when we reach the required distance. We have place planet pictures on sticks so that we could look back and see where they are.
You could also share this interactive that maps the orbits of the planets (you can choose the scale) to really bring home how close the inner planets are to the Sun and how much further away the outer planets are.
Meadhbh,
What a great plan for infants for space week.
Here are handful of space words in Irish:
https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/the-irish-for-space-4731061-Jul2019/
Catherine,
have you tried the Straw Gun or Magic Balloon . They are both suggested for ages 11-16 and look tricky enough to me. Would you adapt them for the children in your class?
They could be used as teacher demonstrations, to serve as the prompt for an inquiry, and then children could propose changes to the set up, make predictions about those changes and then check if that is what happens.
Catherine,
thanks for sharing these sites. I find the sky at night is a good guide for the deep sky objects that you might see with binoculars or telescopes and prefer this guide from Mayo Dark Skies:
https://www.mayodarkskypark.ie/discover/stargazing/
because of the simple graphics and easy to compare views.
Is this the site Deirdre? https://mysteryscience.com/
Short and sweet videos are a great prompt for inquiry work and I’m a big Chris Hadfield fan. I like his Chris Kitchen videos, including how to make a peanut butter tortilla
https://youtu.be/AZx0RIV0wss?si=af-aybkOtw99uGxf
and rehydrating dried spinach
Michelle,
what a great story: The Big Box, Oxford Reading Tree Level 1
https://youtu.be/GS2DHx4jcVA?si=dVzap0DQLzoVGC1u
the illustrations show clearly what happened to the box when it rained, and this is a great prompt for an inquiry.
Plenty of opportunity to ‘explore‘ what happens to a material when it gets wet, in this case in terms of structural integrity. You could link it to the paper towels of Mighty Materials and do they stay strong when they get wet.
