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I would choose the topic of Space and Aliens. I have often veered from teaching about aliens but this module has shown how fun it can be done and how to leads to lots of questions.
I would start with a KWL to see what they know about aliens and Martians and what they would like to find out. Then I would read the story Martian Rock by Carol Diggory Shields.
I loved the Martian activity shared in the module. I would then pose the question what does a Martian look like. I would give the children some time to think, pair and share their ideas. I would select some children to come and draw on the whiteboard. This always assists this who struggle with idea generation.
The children will then all set off to predict what a Martian would look like to them. They would sketch their Martian. We would do a mini plenary here and share some of their sketches on the visualiser. We would discuss similarities and differences, talk about shapes and sizes of their Martians.
The children would then conduct the experiment by making their Martian out of plasticine using their sketches as a guide. When they have made their Martians they would then create a short animation using stop go motion. I used this a lot with my First Class Children last year and they loved it. So I believe it work very well with the Martians. Stop go motion makes it look as if the small plasticine models are moving by themselves. Ideally I would like to incorporate a space background and this could be made prior in a different lesson to be used in this.
Again at the end the stop go animations would be shared with the class or viewed in a silent walking tour.
Stations are great way to expose children to the science learning in many different contexts. Children love the variety too.
I would choose an activity on shadows.
Ideally I would start this lesson outdoors to spark inquiry. Ask children to stand in different positions and to ask what they notice around them. Is there anything happening when you move. What do you see. Then pair the children up to further encourage discussion. Have the children walk from one place to another. Ask the, what they observe when doing this. Children could record there observations in diagram/sentences based on ability.
We would return indoors and discuss our observations and thought shower all of our findings on an anchor chart.
I really enjoyed the 3D activity and torch. There is so much scope with that so I’d like to try that out. I’d like to encourage a collaborative approach to this so as to optimise observational talk and trialling and testing.
At the end of the lesson I would address any misconceptions that have arisen. After that each group could share their findings and answer questions from their peers.
Thanks for sharing this. Love all the ueseful resources the course is providing us with. Also feeling bad that I didn’t know these existed as I trained overseas.
I posted about in another comment, but can’t find it.
Personally I think I have always managed to apply inquiry based learning to sinking and floating with good outcomes. There is so much scope for this topic and children always love it because what they deem as playing with water is actually embedded in so much learning opportunities. To start we would identify items we would like to test out and have a discussion around whether they will float or sink. Including lots of related vocabulary to build understanding and drawing on their prior knowledge. I like to link it into swimming as the children I teach go swimming for the first time in first class. Within the learning the children explore, wonder, predict and reason what will happen to each object. I love the discussions the children engage in with each other and how they communicate their understanding to each other. The children love to then test out and draw conclusions. I often find children will go home and test further items out and will be so excited to share with their peers the next day.
