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I am so impressed with all the amazing resources being shared as part of the course! I had a good look through the online resources and there is a wealth of information available online that I had never come across before. I particularly like Marvin and Milo. I had a look through the website and can’t wait to try the activities with the children in my school. The cartoon comic strip style is so fun and engaging. I actually showed this one to my own children this afternoon so we could give it a go: https://spark.iop.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/M%26M—Straw-water-Gun_0.jpg My children are in senior infants and sixth class and both children had great fun trying to lift the water from the saucer. The conversation and wondering that it sparked was fantastic. I showed them frame one by itself first so they could try the challenge themselves. Then we reviewed the full comic strip and tried out Marvin’s solution, the children were amazed! I also really liked the explanation provided in the last frame of the comic. I can’t wait to try more of these with the children in school next year!
I also loved the ‘rocket mice’ idea and the book Mousetronaut. I think the activities lead themselves really well to cross curricular learning. I would link in the following curricular areas as part of the lesson:
Language/Maths – The children will naturally use a huge amount of mathematical language as part of the activity such as higher/lower, faster/slower, etc. I would model and encourage the children to use more mathematical language and praise their doing so. The children will also be estimating which rockets will go further – will it make a difference if we use a bigger or smaller bottle? etc.
Drama – The children could pretend to be mouse astronauts preparing for their launch into space.
Art – Of course art is also part of the lesson as the children design and make their mouse rockets.
Environmental awareness and care – The children will be reusing plastic bottles that may otherwise be discarded. Children would make aware of the fact that they can recycle their mouse rockets when they are finished playing with them.I am so impressed with all the amazing resources being shared as part of the course! I had a good look through the online resources and there is a wealth of information available online that I had never come across before. I particularly like Marvin and Milo. I had a look through the website and can’t wait to try the activities with the children in my school. The cartoon comic strip style is so fun and engaging. I actually showed this one to my own children this afternoon so we could give it a go: https://spark.iop.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/M%26M—Straw-water-Gun_0.jpg My children are in senior infants and sixth class and both children had great fun trying to lift the water from the saucer. The conversation and wondering that it sparked was fantastic. I showed them frame one by itself first so they could try the challenge themselves. Then we reviewed the full comic strip and tried out Marvin’s solution, the children were amazed! I also really liked the explanation provided in the last frame of the comic. I can’t wait to try more of these with the children in school next year!
This is so cool, I’d never heard of Google Mars before either. I’ll definitely check it out! Thanks Abby
For this reflection I chose the activity set Space and Aliens. I really like the lesson outlined in ESERO 19: Special life. I teach in a junior school and love how suitable and engaging this lesson is for very young children. They would have great fun acting out what makes Earth special and drawing their alien. It made me think about Earth being in the ‘goldilocks zone’. In my classroom, I would read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to the children and ask them what Goldilocks was searching for? She was looking for the porridge, chair and bed that was ‘just right’. I would explain that Earth is like that for us, it’s ‘just right’. This could lead us into a discussion about habitats. As an extension activity then the children could try to design an alien for different planets. What sort of features would an alien on a very hot planet have? What about a very cold planet?
The Bear’s shadow is such a great idea and shadow tag too! I think it would make for such a memorable lesson for the children.
Wow, there was a lot of great content in this module! Maeve Liston’s sun booklet is particularly brilliant. The activity I chose to explore further is the Solar Beads. I came across cyanotype paper this year and thought it looked great but never got around to actually trying it. It is similar to the solar beads where it reacts to the UV light. You place objects on the paper and leave it out in the sun, uncovered areas where the sun’s light shines turn blue and blocked areas remain white. The solar beads seem to be another great way to see the effects of the sun’s UV rays. I had a look online and they don’t seem too expensive either, which is always a plus! One question that I had (forgive me if it was explained in the module and I missed it) was do the beads return to their original colour when they are brought indoors or is the reaction to the UV light permanent?
This is a great space fact! It’s so hard to comprehend the vastness of space, the sand really puts it into perspective. Wow!
After engaging in module 1 the inquiry based activity I chose to further explore is ‘Why do we have day and night?’
Engage: I will begin by showing the children some pictures of sunrise and sunset. We will examine and discuss the pictures. I will ask the children if they have any questions about the pictures. I will record these questions on the whiteboard. I will ask the children where the sun goes when it is nighttime?
Investigate: Together we will investigate how Earth experiences night and day. I will ask a child to volunteer to be the sun. The child will be given a torch. Another child will be in charge of the globe that represents Earth. Blinds will be closed and classroom lights turned off. The child with the torch will shine its light on the globe. The child holding the globe will slowly rotate it on its axis. The children will observe where the sun’s light shines. I found a great image on the NASA scientific visualisation studio that I would share with the children also: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5477/#media_group_377658
Take the Next Step: The children will call out some countries that they are familiar with. We will find these countries on the globe and place stickers on them identifying them. The child with the torch will again shine the light on the Earth. This time, without rotating the globe, we will examine if it’s daytime or nighttime in each of the countries that the children suggested. We will compare two countries on opposite sides of the world and examine how they are experiencing day and night. I will pose the question, ‘What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?’ We will discuss.
Conclusion: As a class, we will reflect on our investigation. We will return to the questions the children asked at the start of the lesson. I will ensure that all these questions were answered. We will add new questions for the next lesson.
