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I was drawn to this assignment as I love to look at things like space and the stars in real time. However, I did not find it as easy as I had first hoped! I downloaded the Satellite Tracker app on my phone and while this gave lists of all the satellites passing over my location, it did not give any information about them. Not discouraged, I went online with the names of the satellites I had seen on line and did some research. I found these websites useful:
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/
https://www.heavens-above.com/
2yo.com/space-station/
1. Starlink 23031 – Discpline: Communications
2. USA 81 – Discpline: Signals Intelligence
3. Cosmos 1763 Rocket – Discipline: operates as a mailbox, remembers received messages and resends them after a scheduled time or when instructed
4. Starlink 2229 – Discipline: Communications
5. ISS – Astronauts live on the International Space Station. They typically spend a mission period of around six months conducting various science experiments and maintaining and repairing the ISS.Sarah, I also found the website heavens above useful. I was surprised that the information wasn’t more readily available.
Catriona, I agree with you when you said that you would not show the entire movie ‘Home’ to the class. Like you, I feel that showing chosen sections would be much more impactful.
“Home” is a visually arresting documentary showcasing Earth’s beauty and environmental peril. The film highlights striking facts: half of the world’s forests have vanished, 20% of the polar ice cap has melted in the last 20 years and species extinction rates are accelerating. It shows how 1 billion people suffer from hunger while another billion are overfed, reflecting severe resource management. Utilizing breath taking aerial shots, “Home” emphasizes humanity’s interconnectedness with nature and the urgent need to adapt sustainable practices to preserve our planet for future generations.
Greta Thunberg’s TED talk is powerful and direct, compellingly urging climate action. Her straightforward delivery and personal anecdotes emphasising the urgency of the crisis, effectively inspiring global awareness.
To engage children in my class I would use short clips of ‘Home’ to illustrate Earth’s beauty and environmental issues. I would shop a few minutes of Greta Thunberg’s Ted Talk also, it would be inspiring for children to hear the voice of a child speaking on this topic. I would follow this with discussion and I would incorporate interactive activities like drawing, creating eco-friendly projects and brainstorming ways to help the planet. I would aim to make the message relatable to inspire sustainable habits.
Jamie, I think the idea of a KWL chart is great. It would be a good way to understand prior knowledge on the topic and to review the information learned at the end of the lesson.
The video of Paxi explaining about The Greenhouse Effect was engaging and had a level of complexity that could be easily understood by children in the senior section of primary school. It would be a great opening to a lesson on climate.
The video explanation of the weather prediction tool was very clear, however, depending on your group I feel it would be a good idea to explain the idea of weather prediction before you show this to them. You could use relatable examples like deciding what to wear based on the weather forecast. The tool itself is very user-friendly. It is visual and interactive which would maintain the interest of children. The graphics are colourful and the animations would make the data easier to understand. I feel it would be a good idea to allow the children to make their own predictions about the results before you would use the tool itself. Recording the results of predictions would be an important step. Once some time has passed you could discuss the accuracy of the predictions. Here you could integrate maths by having students calculate the difference between predicted and actual temperatures and average their prediction accuracy.The activities in the ESA resources are ideal for classroom use. They are clearly laid out and practical. If I was to use these resources I would start by exploring the difference between weather and climate. It seems obvious to an adult but I imagine to a young child this is a concept worth expanding on. I would then endeavour to set up a weather station in the school garden. My first step would be to set up a small team, if even only one other teacher. Working together promotes collegiality and would help to increase the number of children to benefit from the experiment. Together we would choose the location, an area away from buildings and trees would be best. We would then invest in equipment, it would be possible to make some of the equipment, however this could be done as an extension activity to expand the children’s learning. We would purchase a thermometer, a rain gauge and a wind vane. We would then go about collecting data from our instruments. This would need to be recorded. It would be a good idea at this stage to invite parents and community projects to get involved to foster a sense of contribution and real world application.
The activities in the ESA resources are ideal for classroom use. They are clearly laid out and practical. If I was to use these resources I would start by exploring the difference between weather and climate. It seems obvious to an adult but I imagine to a young child this is a concept worth expanding on. I would then endeavour to set up a weather station in the school garden. My first step would be to set up a small team, if even only one other teacher. Working together promotes collegiality and would help to increase the number of children to benefit from the experiment. Together we would choose the location, an area away from buildings and trees would be best. We would then invest in equipment, it would be possible to make some of the equipment, however this could be done as an extension activity to expand the children’s learning. We would purchase a thermometer, a rain gauge and a wind vane. We would then go about collecting data from our instruments. This would need to be recorded. It would be a good idea at this stage to invite parents and community projects to get involved to foster a sense of contribution and real world application.
Conor, it sounds like you have a very engaging classroom. Researching inventions and inventors is a wonderful starting point. In our school we did something similar regarding ‘what would you do to improve our school’, unfortunately the vast majority of ideas would never pass any health and safety standards.
