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Course Refelction
This course has definitely reshaped how I view the teaching of space in the primary classroom.
One thing that this course has shown me is how creative the teaching of outer space can be for young children. Prior to exploring the modules, I had always considered space to be a topic more relevant to the senior classes. However, many of the activities suggested and topics explored in this course definitely disproved that! For example, creating little martian figures out of clay is not just a fun art activity which allows children to use their imagination. It is also a perfect engagement point in order to capture the interest of young children and ready them to learn about all of the other planets in our solar system. This, in turn, can lead to discussions on conserving our planet, historical space travel, biodiversity, and so much more.
My favourite thing about this course was definitely how doable, simple, and low-“fuss” many of the activities were. I have found as a class teacher that often amazing ideas can be suggested, but they are regularly ones which would require hours of planning, a costly trip to Mr Price, and at least two more adults in the room. Unfortunately, this is often impossible! So, I welcomed ideas like the balloon rockets or designing one’s own constellations with open arms. These are definitely activities that would engage the children and expand their minds to consider space in a new, curious manner. However, they are still accessible and manageable for the reality of school life. I’m certain that simply providing children with a starry night sky template and challenging them to create a brand new shape or image would prompt them to view stars and the night sky as a whole differently for their entire lives—provoking them to ponder how far away the stars are, what value they bring to us on Earth, how to find the North Star by recognising those surrounding it, etc.
I was very impressed by the teaching skills and methodologies used to teach the children about Ultra Violet light. The concept of being safe in the sun and bringing sun screen on a school tour is one often mentioned in school, however I had never considered truly informing children about what the dangers of the sun actually are and tying the lesson into the theme of outer space. I thought that the repetition of ‘Ultra Violet Light’ whilst simultaneously clicking on the torch was a multi-sensory mode of consolidating the new vocabulary, and is a methodology that could be used across an array of subjects. Bringing the children outside with the Ultra Violet beads is again, such a low-cost yet child-centred way to show the children that the rays have genuine, fast-acting effects, and is a lesson that would undoubtedly stay with them long-term. I would very much enjoy doing an experiment with my class whereby some of the beads are left in the shade and some are placed in the sun. The children could then compare the two sets and know for certain that the sun is what caused the discolouration to occur. Following this, of course, conversations about how to prevent such damage from occurring to our skin would be necessary. I think the drama technique used in the video was excellent. It included all of the children and really maintained a ‘show don’t tell’ approach to teaching the children this basic life skill. If doing this with my class I would also link it to Gaeilge with words like hata, spéaclaí gréine, griandóthadh, agus mar sin de. I see this as an excellent opportunity for this type of cross-curricular learning.
In conclusion, this course has entirely reshaped how I view the teaching of space in the primary classroom. What once felt like a daunting topic more suited to older children now feels incredibly exciting, creative, and accessibleeven for the youngest learners. The variety of hands-on, engaging activities introduced throughout the modules have demonstrated that space can be explored through art, science, drama, literacy, and so much more. It is clear that space does not need to be confined to facts about planets or astronauts, but can act as a prompt for deeper discussions about life, nature, science, safety, and imagination. Most importantly, this course has reminded me that effective teaching doesn’t need to be overly elaborate or rely on unobtainable tricky resources. It just needs to be meaningful, intentional, and child-centred. I look forward to implementing many of these ideas in my own classroom and continuing to foster that sense of awe and curiosity in my students as they fully embrace learning about all things space and all things STEM.
Hi Patrick. I really like the idea of using different size balloons in order to prompt the children to consider the experiment on a deeper level. This would really consolodate for them that the amount of force behind the rocket directly impacts how far it travels.
I would undertake the ‘Balloon Rocket’ activity with my class. Firstly, I think using Marvin and Milo to engage the children as fun, colourful, curious characters would really captivate their interest from the very beginning. Notably, I would not show the children the entire comic strip as this would spoil the ending, but rather showcase the two characters setting up the balloon and string.
Next, I would invite the children to predict what will happen to the balloon, using prompting questions such as ‘Will the balloon stay in place?’, ‘Will it move?’, ‘How far?’ if necessary.
Next, I would give the children a chance to play with the balloons before inviting them to set up and observe what happens to their balloon rockets! We would then consider if our predictions were correct and discuss why we think the balloon was enabled to move. Did anyone push it? Does it look differently than it did at the start? What is different about it? Oh yes, the air is gone! We would then discuss how the air leaving the baloon was pushing it along and creating enough force for the rocket to move along the string.
Whilst doing this experiment with the children I would also connect it to static electricity during their exploratory time with the balloons at the beginning.
Hi Ceire. I think your idea about recording the work on Seesaw is excellent. It would be great for parents to know what STEM work is happening at school, and potentially encourage them to delve into it even further with their children at home.
I would be excited to use the ‘The Sun gives off heat’ activity with my class. I think it is a simple, accessible way to demonstrate one affect of the sun to a senior infants class group. Prior to beginning the lesson, I would discuss the necissity for ice with the children and ask them if they have any ideas for how we could make some. This would prompt the children to consider what the freezer does to the water, and the connection between water and ice. This is also something we could revisit at the end when the ice has turned back in to water!
Following that, we would place the two bowls with an ice cube in their respective areas – one in the sun, one in the shade. I would ask the children higher order questions such as ‘What do you think will happen next?’, ‘How long do you think it will take?’, ‘Will they both take the same amount of time?’, etc.
I would then give the children time to observe the icea cubes and record their findings by colouring the ice cube that is melting more quickly. I would ask them to reflect upon their initial predictions and discover whether or not they were correct.
To finish off, we would acknowledge that the ice cube in the sun melted more quickly and consider why this is the case. We would discuss the power of the sun and what it’s heat does to ice, how it makes us feel, what it’s helpful for, etc.
Hi Eileen. I love your suggests for engaging opening questions i.e. ‘Have you ever looked up at the sky at night? What do you see?’. I’m certain that these would prompt the children to think of stars on a deep level, and use their oral language skills to convey their ideas to their peers.
I would definitely use the ‘Draw Your Own Constellation’ activity in my classroom. It is very similar to, and could be used as an extension of an art activity whereby the children draw a simply black dot or blob in the middle of a page and then use their imaginations to create an image around it. It leads to all sorts of ideas like a dogs face (the dot is the nose), a car (it’s a tyre), etc.
For the ‘Draw Your Own Constellation’ activity I think I would begin by showing the children some images of stars in the sky and asking if anyone can make out any pictures, like is commonly done with clouds. I would invite children to ome to the board and demonstrate what they see to the rest of the class. Then, I would introduce the word ‘constellation’ and inform the children that we have in fact been creating our own!
After this, the children would receive their ‘Draw Your Own Constellation’ worksheets and be encouraged to both draw, and discuss their ideas with those at their tables. Once they were all completed, we would admire and discuss everyones work before looking at images of some famous constellations in our night sky.
Hi Barbara. I totally agree that the Planets activities allow for lots of integration! Using the inflatable earth ball during a PE lesson would allow for so much playful learning with great links to SESE.
I would love to use the ‘Bear’s Shadow’ idea in my classroom. I think using the Bear book as a prompt to captivate the children and as a discussion starter would really encourage the children to both answer questions asked to them, and to ask their own questions as they come up.
Offering the children a chance to play and experiment with the flashlights in an unstructured manner for a little while after the story would also allow for learning through play and offer them time to notice the effect of the light on the bear, and how moving it around can change the shadows that form. Offering more planned questions such as ‘How can we make the shadow lay on the fish?’ afterwards would promote a deeper level of thinking and require the children to really apply what they’ve been learning.
I would also invite the children to make shadows of their friends hands, and comment on how long or short the fingers appear and why they think this might be happening. I think connecting how long shadows appear when the flashlight is low down, just like it did with bear, would really allow the children to generalise what they’ve learned and consolodate the knowledge acquired.
An inquiry-based activity I like to do is rolling different objects down a ramp to explore how the force of gravity affects their movement.
To begin we start with a KWL chart to spark curiosity and guide learning:
K: What do we Know about gravity or why things roll or fall?
W: What do we Want to know about how things move or why some roll faster?
L: After the activity, we’ll fill in what we Learned about the force of gravity.
We introduce gravity as a force—an invisible pull that brings everything down to the ground.
The children then build simple ramps using materials like cardboard, planks, or books. They choose a variety of objects to test, such as balls, toy cars, blocks, or apples.
They investigate questions like:
Which object rolls fastest?
Does size or weight matter?
What happens if the ramp is steeper?
Children are encouraged to makepredictions, test their ideasand observe the results. They may even design small races or time their objects to explore more deeply.
After experimenting, we return to the KWL chart and fill in what they learned about how gravity, as a force, affects how things roll or fall.
