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Hi Lucy this is a really helped me when thinking of SSE with regards to STEM and reinforced what we learnt in this module. I will be taking a similar approach in September with a focus on process and more inquiry based activities. The importance of the children’s voice is also something I will be placing extra emphasis on. While it is something I have always done, I do feel I could do more in this area.
Lesson : Rockets in Space – 1st Class
Engage: I would begin by reading “The Darkest Dark” by Chris Hadfield , and then explain who he is (Astronaut) and show a video of him inside a rocket in Space either brushing his teeth or showing how he goes to sleep. This would lead on nicely to the lessons on Gravity we looked at previously in this course later in the week.
Exploration: I would follow this with the video of the Rocket Launch. I would encourage conversation about how do you think it took off? Is it moving fast or slow? Comparing to an airplane ( linking to own experience)
Activity: I would use the suggested lesson for designing their own Rocket using the Rocket Mouse lesson
Investigation : I would take the lesson advised her on predictions and following up testing to see how far our rockets go and the effects of force.
Conclusion: my class love the Dog Man books and think the Marvin and Milo would be a fun way to allow further exploration.
This sounds like a really fun lesson. Love the idea of using a straw. Maybe the could also compare blowing without a straw compared to with a straw!
Where do I live?
This is a topic I always enjoy looking at with Senior Infants but I have lots of new ideas from both the module and the participants above.
Here are some ways I would look at this topic in my class :
Intro : read the story “Sharing a Shell” or “This is Our House” by Michael Rosen.
explore and compare and contrast images of different homes – how are they the same? What is different?
identify the type of homes we live in.
look at the role of the Architect and the Builder – once we looked at select snippets from Room to Improve from a local home to look at these roles and see how a plan can become a real home.
look at the construction site – who might work here? What machinery might you need. There is a nice Come Outside video in bricks and the construction site
Draw and design dream homes – the children always show such imagination with water slides, football pitches, rooms full of sweets.
The Three Little Pigs –
explore materials used to build a home – what would be a good choice? What wouldn’t? ( link to design a coat lesson!)
Play – construction area – taking in roles of builders, architects, electricians etc
It can also link to Estate Agents.
We tend to explore this as a theme for a month there are so many things to investigate!
Hi Sarah, you have lots of great ideas here. Thanks for sharing. I asked my Sr Infants to design their dream homes this year and it was amazing to see their ideas from waterslides to tennis courts to rooms full of ice cream and treats!
I really like this lesson Mary, the video is lovely and a nice way to show the children. It can be hard at times to see the stars – between having to stay up late for it to be dark enough and the city lights making them trickier to see! Thanks for sharing.
I love the idea of counting the stars and linking to Maths. I will be adding this to my lesson – thanks Sandra.
While I really loved the activity set on Aliens and look forward to using these in my class next year ( along with borrowing a teacher in my schools alien eye sunglasses as a great conversation starting point and then for taking on the role of a space alien!) the I am going to focus on Stars for this assignment.
I would start with the story How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers.
We would then have a discussion about stars – have you even seen a star? When do we see stars? What happens to the stars during the day?
I really liked how this activity set looked at the idea of how many stars are in the sky and would use this approach as outlined in the ESERO 13 lesson plan. I would also used the suggested video from GAIA to explore this further.
We would then look at the idea of Constellations and The Plough. I would send information home with the children and encourage them to try some star spotting at home.
I like to use star stickers , silver pens and black sugar paper to create our own Star Name constellations! Using the silver pen to draw lines between star stickers to write our names. We can spatter paint as suggested to add more stars to the background!
I really enjoyed this module and really found all activities fantastic and something I will either use or adapt with my class this year and in the future.
I particularly enjoyed the My Sky Tonight lesson on Day and Night. I think this would be really engaging and enjoyable for the Junior Classes. If I was doing this lesson with Jr or Sr Infants I would probably start with the story Day Monkey, Night Monkey by Julia Donaldson. If I was exploring with it with First or Second I would read The Rabbit, The Dark and The Biscuit Tin as my introduction. The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark would also be a nice follow up story about night time with older classes.
My class really enjoyed looking at the various Super Moons this year. I invited parents to email in photographs if they managed to spot it. It created great excitement in the classroom !
Another lesson I really enjoyed with the lesson on UV light. I loved the idea of the UV beads and as others have mentioned I think this is a really important topic. I really liked the simple idea of the props to reinforce new vocabulary.
This sounds like a lovely lesson Irene. While you are outside looking at shadows you could also ask the kids to take turns to draw their shadows (with chalk) on the ground with a partner –
one person stands still while the other draws around their shadows. They could add their eyes, nose, smile. My class always love doing this.
This sounds like a lovely lesson and that is one of my favourite stories. Another lovely story about the dark and nighttime is The Bear, The Dark and the Biscuit Tin. We also look at The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark in First Class.
I really enjoyed watching the different ideas for inquiry based learning and will be using the missing sweeties as a fun lesson in September!
One inquiry based lesson I enjoy doing is around bridges. We are very close to a castle and visit it often as well as learning about its history and how it is different from other castles in Ireland. I like to introduce the idea of a moat and how could people cross the moat – either to leave the castle or to gain entry! I use this as my stimulus and then get the children to design bridges using objects in the classroom. We then test them by placing a toy knight or horse on to see if they hold up or if they fall.
I have also seen the idea of giving students a piece of paper, two books/cups and a coin. The students must come up with ways to make the paper strong enough to hold the coin.
I like the idea of keeping a STEM journal to record our inquiries and draw/write down our ideas and if they worked/what we learnt.
Hi Christine! That is a really cool fact! I will definitely be using this one with my class next year! How cool!
Hi , I’m Helen and I am going to have First next year. In our school we always spend a month looking at Space. The children always love this topic! I decided to do this course to try to help me come up with ways to encourage further STEM learning on the topic as it is always such a big hit!
I always really enjoy looking at Astronaut Chris Hadfield when exploring space in my class-he has some great videos. One of my favourite facts inspired by Chris – and by this module and its focus on gravity- is that you can cry in Space but your tears don’t fall! Instead the tears form one “blob” of water under your eye.