[John O Connor]

I really like the idea of doing different types of rockets before giving them the experience with something launching. A rocket using 2D shapes is a very easy and effective idea too.

[John O Connor]

Activity Set: Rockets
I think the rockets activity set allows for the perfect opportunity for a whole school space week activity. The module provided for the perfect opportunity to have everyone working on the same type of activity. The Penny rocket idea would be a great way to introduce the concept of propulsion to all classes in the junior end. The children should be allowed to make predictions before and then share observations about what happened after. It would be a great activity for children to share at home.

Infant level classes could work on the mice rockets and have 5th and 6th class help to assist them in how far their rockets travelled in the air.

1st and 2nd class could then try the balloon rocket activity. A hall or an outside playground would be ideal for investigation into their balloon rocket design. I would get the children to work in groups where they would get three attempts so that they would be encouraged to adapt their design.

I think the senior end of the school could also engage and be motivated in creating paper and foam rockets. 5th and 6th class could look at how astronauts return to earth and engage in an egg drop activity.

The week should also involve classes learning about astronauts and special moments in space travel. Children from senior classes could also conduct mock interviews with children in the junior classes about their rocket launch.

[John O Connor]

Exploring weather does seem like a great vehicle for finding out about other areas. The spin the wheel activivty could even be modified where the sections has different locations rather than different weather types.

[John O Connor]

Online Resources and Tools
The Stellarium resource was something I really enjoyed looking at and one of those I can see being shared to colleagues throughout the school. It is a great resource for allowing students to see the real thing and get an idea of the constellations as they really appear in the night sky rather than in isolation. I can also see it being useful in allowing students to explore the night sky at home with family and then return to school to document their experience with the sky projected behind them.

In addition to the above, the resource could also be used as a way to start children in creative writing exercises.

The Marvin and Milo resource looks brilliant in that it offers very kid friendly instructions that can be utilised as well as experiments that would be interesting and beneficial to learners. I feel the way it illustrates the experiments through a comic format is useful in that it helps you give learners that more independence and it also gives them another way to document their own observations.

[John O Connor]

This is a great lesson idea and could lead into a nice drama activivty too based on the story or create a scenario where an alien lands on Earth. The class could even be tested on what they know about other planets.

[John O Connor]

Activity Set: Stars
A comment was made in the forum for the first module about how the simple fact that our Sun is a star can be such a shock. This together with the video about how many stars are out there would be a good way to start the topic with a class. I would then start a discussion with the class about when we see stars and when we see the Sun. This would lead well into an experiment about how we don’t see the other stars during the day by using lights in a dark area in the classroom. The experiment could begin by having lights in a line and getting the children to say what they see. Then get the lights to spread out and get feedback. Finally get one light as the Sun to be up close and get the others to move backwards.

I loved the model created of the constellation. I may get a class to create models of different constellations using straws as a group activivty. As a follow up, I would get the children to move to other tables and sketch what they see and try to label what they feel it is from their own choosen positions. This would lead into the idea of how our position dictates what we see in space.

[John O Connor]

Creating a solar system that is to scale could be an interesting link up opportunity with an older class in the school.

[John O Connor]

For this, I would look at the moon activity set. From a personal point of view, the moon is something that has always intrigued me with the concept of the dark side of the moon that we don’t see.

I would begin by getting the children to share what they know about the moon and then to draw a picture with the moon in it. I would then follow up by getting the children to look at actual pictures of the moon and allow them to alter them as they see fit. I have in the past given the children a worksheet to document the shape of the moon for homework. This often depends on the time of the year for how practical it is. This can work well in bringing up the idea of the phases of the moon as children discuss what they saw and what they may have expected based on previous experiences.

I really liked the idea of exploring craters and creating a moon that you could feel and where children included the mountains of the moon. This is a type of research project I could see children enjoying.

In conjunction with this, I would also look at some of the mythology that exists in different cultures about the moon. I see this going well with the man in the moon activity and getting the children engaged in more creative, imaginative activities.

[John O Connor]

I like the idea of getting the children to fill the role of scientists as then you can introduce concepts like a fair test and it can lead to some great discussions as they take on their new responsibilities.

[John O Connor]

Hi, my name is John and in september I will be working with 1st class. A space fact I was told years ago by a child was that if you had a broken bone, you could not travel to space.

I think inquiry is a great vehicle to teach the topic of space and science through and many of the reasons can be seen in the lessons presented in this first module. For inquiry, it is important to get the interest of the child so the use of a trigger. This can also be an important step to gauge the knowledge level of your learners. Sometimes you may have children who have more knowledge than expected so it can be beneficial to know that they can be stretched.

I think it is also important that activities are kept active as much as possible where the children are able to experiment. This way children learn by doing as much as possible and it can help them retain the new information too. The reflection step and the teacher are important at the end also in ensuring the correct information and understanding is developed. As was touched in the gravity lesson, it can be easy for the wrong or a partial understanding to be taken.

[Author]

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