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Hi Lauren,
I completely agree! Learning what each satellite does and watching them pass over Ireland in real-time was really interesting. It’s a fun and visual way to learn, and it also teaches a lot about space, geography, and technology. I think students would find it both exciting and educational.
Hi Brian, I think it’s a great idea to show Greta Thunberg’s TED Talk and COP25 speech to the students. She speaks with a lot of passion, and since she’s young and standing up for change, it helps make the issue feel more real and relatable to them.
STEM education in my classroom involves lots of questioning, testing, experimenting, predicting and problem solving. It involves lots of group work promoting teamwork. Listening skills and presenting skills are to the forefront. Active learning and scientific investigation are very important in my classroom.
Activity 1: Is it weather or climate?
This activity effectively explains the difference between weather and climate using everyday examples for meaningful discussion. The sorting exercise works on children’s powers of observation, reasoning, and critical thinking. Including a “birthday weather” prompt is particularly clever. It’s personalized and meaningful to children, helping them naturally connect short-term weather events with long-term climate patterns. I would start this lesson with a class discussion and then get the children to work in small groups.Activity 2: Weather Detectives covers lots of STEM basics. Children can become real investigators by taking daily temperature readings and making sure they record them at the same time and place each day—this helps them learn to collect data accurately. Drawing their results in graphs teaches them how to show information clearly, spot patterns, and work out averages. Comparing what they record in class with data from the internet builds digital know how and helps them understand how to interpret real-world info. As a class we could bring our findings to whole school assemblies.
I completely agree – The Paxi video on the greenhouse effect animation, is a delightful and visually rich resource that simplifies a somewhat complex topic into something that is fun, clear, and highly engaging for children. It’s a great idea to share with staff too.
I would be interested in designing and setting up a weather station too. I have used a rain gauge before but I’ve never used the anemometer or thermometers. The children would love observing and recording their findings daily.
A class plan to engage with Space Week.
My aim would be to celebrate space week in a fun filled action packed manner with lots of opportunities to learn from hands on activities. I would aim to ignite in the children a love of space and encourage their wonder and awe. I would aim to use a cross curricular approach.
Day 1: Rocket building and launching activity.
I would start the week with this fun, hands on activity. I would put the children into groups and encourage them to design and create their own rockets using materials such as plastic bottles, paper, tin foil etc.Day 2: Interview an astronaut.
I would ask the class to imagine an astronaut visited the school and came into our class. What questions would they like to ask the astronaut? I would look up some interviews with astronauts to show the class to help with the questions.Day 3: Space related science experiments.
I would carry out a few space related science experiments with the class.Day 4: Space Quiz
In groups we would have a quiz with questions that are space related.Day 5: Planet Exploration
Show the children the songs, ‘Planet Song’ and ‘We are the Planets’. Divide the class in to groups and give each group a planet to explore. In their group they must put together some facts about the planet. They will create their given planet using papier mache.At the end of the week we would have a space dress up day. I would encourage the children to dress up as spaced themed characters such as aliens, astronauts, Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon etc
Activity set: Online resources and tools.
There are so many excellent resources here that I would love to try in my classroom. These resources provide so many opportunities to gain a comprehensive understanding of STEM. There are so many online resources and activities available for teachers and for the children. Some of the ones that I would be most interested in trying and looking into more are-
• The ‘Astronomy Picture of the Day’ this would be a great resource to use as a prompt or stimulus. It would also be great to use for oral language. There is a new image available every day.
• Marvin and Milo, a super resource full of great ideas and activities for stories and role play. I think the children would enjoy the characters.
• Stellarium web, a fantastic website available to explore and full of so much helpful interactive and instant tools and ideas to use in the classroom. The planets visibility and the constellations are something that I believe the children would really enjoy.There are so many wonderful online resources and tools available to explore space. I’m looking forward to using these new found tools this year.
Activity Set: Space and Aliens
There are so many opportunities for hands on learning, creativity and imagination within this activity set.
I would begin the lesson by discussing what the children already know about space and aliens. We would briefly discuss the planets in the solar system and watch some videos based on the planets.
I would ask the children to design and create their very own alien. I would display some alien images. We would discuss some characteristics of aliens- the colour, how many eyes, heads etc.
The children would create their own alien and draw an image of it. I would encourage them to name their alien and briefly describe their alien, for example What planet their alien comes from? What food it would eat?Following the create and draw activity, I would get the children to create their own alien using different materials. Materials such as paper, tin foil, tissue or food wrappers work best here. I love the idea I read on the forum of creating a small space world area with spaceships and rockets. A space area where the children could play with their newly created aliens.
Following on from this activity we could have a lesson based on ‘Interview my Alien’, where we would interview some of the aliens to find out more about them. This could be a whole class activity or a paired activity.
I would choose the activity set The Planets. I feel this area provides lots of opportunities for exploration and education in a fun, active and hands on way.
Introduction: I would gather the children together in a circle and find out their prior knowledge, what they already know about the sun and the planets. I would ask some open and closed questions and write down all the information they provide collectively on the whiteboard.
I would read a picture book about planets, Adam’s Amazing Space Adventures. I would start by naming the planets from the sun. We would look at some images of the planets and discuss the facts to describe each planet.
I would play the planet game which would be lots of fun and hopefully the children would remember some of the names of the planets and begin to understand that the planets revolve around the sun.
I would show the children the video of the song, Planet Song and encourage the children to join in and sing along.
Finally, for the art lesson that week I would get the children to make and create their own planets using papier mache. I would encourage the children to focus on images they have seen and the facts they have learned about each planet and try to show this in their art work.
Hi Laura, this would be a such a fun activity to do with a class. It would develop so many different skills. I have built the Titanic with some of my class groups before. The ideas that they come up with are amazing. I can only imagine the space ships that would be created- fabulous!
Some great use of online activities & resources here. I haven’t heard of or used many of these before. I look forward to exploring further & using these fantastic resources. The children would be so engaged.
Thank you!Hi Michelle,
I think it’s a lovely idea to encourage the children to take photos of the stars at night & then display them. I’m going to put this on my list of activities to do this year.
Thanks!I love the idea of tracing their shadows with chalks in pairs. A fun activity to help the children understand shadows. They love using the different coloured chalks.
