[Niall Smith]

Marie,

thanks for mentioning The Marrog – it is a poem that has been mentioned in other years that this course has run, but I think you are the first to include it this year.

https://www.thelearningzoo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Picture-It-The-Marrog.pdf

There are further suggestions here: https://irishprimaryteacher.ie/the-marrog/

I think comparing and contrasting Mars to Earth is a powerful way for the children to explore the differences. They may not know a lot about Mars, so be sure to offer images to help them see the differences. A suitable source of those images is the Mars resource from spaceweek.ie, or this from NASA.

[Niall Smith]

Sinéad,

can you link to the mini games and animations from Marvin and Milo? I must have missed them and can only see pdfs and outlines of activities. Which cartoon are you thinking of that references air and wind? Much as I like Marvin and Milo, it could really use a topic index.

There is a Curious Minds activity about moving air at: https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/moving_air.pdf

this would make a suitable inquiry investigation with plenty of suggested prompts and fair testing challenges built into the possible activities.

 

[Niall Smith]

Sabrina,

I’m glad you appreciate Stellarium, it is a powerhouse in the planetarium community. It is still under development and there are a range of supports that can be used with it, particularly from US Professor Patricia Reiff. You can find links to these supports from the D.O.M.E project, a recent Erasmus+ project that BCO were engaged with on building cardboard planetariums.

https://dome.nuclio.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/D.O.M.E.-QuickStartGuide-Stellarium.pdf

[Niall Smith]

Katie,

your Martian activity sounds like an engaging experience for infants. I like the inclusion of Aliens Love Underpants, it really is a super story for that age group and has a wide range of alien body types, with different eyes, shapes, colours – all of which can support early Maths and Science observation skills.

Did you know that there are official Alien Underpants songs?

https://youtu.be/vOXClUBEtL8?si=CUw3nY1gkqK7hTXh

[Niall Smith]

Emily,

you  have clearly shown the inquiry framework applied to rockets, by choosing a suitable prompt, giving the children a chance to explore how the rockets work and then developing the investigation.

I like that you have identified a suitable next step – great stuff.

[Niall Smith]

Eithne,

planning the Moon observations to start with a crescent Moon in the early evening progressing to a full Moon is a great idea. Be sure to look up when the Moon is new, and start a few days after that. It will take about a fortnight to go from crescent to full Moon.

[Niall Smith]

Sean,

the balloons as described in Module 5 are a super example of inquiry based learning, with all aspects of the Inquiry Framework in place to support learning.

The children will be engaged in the topic through the video clips, and will have the opportunity to make balloons that model real rocket behaviour. With the starter question “do bigger balloons go further” they have the opportunity to describe what they think will happen, based on their own understanding of forces, and then find out if their ideas are correct in the investigation phase.

They can record and share their results, then discuss if their predictions were correct.

Since this will be dependent on the distance the rockets are given to fly, it would be a good idea to give different groups different lengths of string – which then gives a very relevant “take the next step“

[Niall Smith]

Valerie,

you have described a research based inquiry process, where, once the children have made a prediction, they can use research to help investigate the topic.

The rocket sounds like an amazingly engaging prompt, and once the children have wondered and explored they can ask their own questions and find out answers. This might be based on comparisons that they can make with the Earth, for example, “I wonder if other planets are the same temperature as the Earth?” and they might expect the two planets that are closer to the Sun to be warmer.

This can then be verified by research, and any unexpected research can lead to a further inquiry.

[Niall Smith]

James,

this is a great example of a prompt to engage the children’s interest. I like how you have given them their starter question, and would suggest that you ask them to make a prediction based on their understanding.

If they need to do some preliminary work before making their prediction, they might look at the relationship between height and foot size for their class, then make a prediction for a wider age of people, and include adults in the data.

 

[Niall Smith]

Justyne,

this has sent me down a rabbit hole of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star facts.

Did you know that there are actually 5 verses?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkle,_Twinkle,_Little_Star

Do you propose to use these lyrics? or is “Stars” a different song?

 

[Niall Smith]

Dawn,

thanks for sharing thoughtful and appropriate suggestions for prompt videos for your activity sequence on the Planets and the Moon.

Images of the surface of each planet are a bit tricky to get, there hasn’t been a lander on Mercury, but there are plenty of pictures from orbit due to the Messenger mission and the BepiColumbo mission.

Venus was only landed on by a few landers in the 1970s, it is very inhospitable, but images do exist. You can read about the difficulty of getting images of the surface here: https://www.planetary.org/articles/how-do-we-see-the-surface-of-venus-from-space

Mars is easy, there are lots of rovers and landers.

The outer planets don’t have solid surfaces!

[Niall Smith]

Thanks for sharing the story: https://youtu.be/yDoLVpEJkhI?si=p65UM9FexzAikz5i,

although I’m not sure how Barnaby found Tilly just by knowing where north is!

There is scope for an older class to look at why Polaris remains in the same part of the sky, possibly by making star maps or using this resource from SpaceWeek.ie

https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Plough-Clock.pdf

[Niall Smith]

Tara,

in Module 4 we share “Stellarium” which is planetarium software. An option for your night sky of stars might be to shine this up on the ceiling from a projector. It can be displayed on a whiteboard, but covering the expanse of a ceiling would be much more dramatic.

You could explore why stars twinkle – see this video> https://youtu.be/Pu9Yu-DMfyM?si=UH_1LAztKljeo7ws, the galaxy jars that you make may well act as the atmosphere.

 

[Niall Smith]

Elaine,

the paper plate sundial looks to be a nice personal size version of recording the shadows from a fixed stick in the ground. I found this guide to it:

https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/science-at-home/diy-science-fun/make-a-sundial

The way you have described the activity allows the children plenty of opportunity to wonder and explore. Would you then allow them the time to investigate a question of their own choosing? They might wonder if the sundial would work the same in winter when the sun rises so much later (or, they might not realise that yet, so might make a prediction about using the sundial in winter, then try it out).

[Niall Smith]

Grace,

the straw paper rocket is a great, simple rocket. How easy was it for the infants to roll their own rockets? We’ve found that they can find the fine motor skills a bit tricky, so tend to use rocket mouse with the very youngest children, and the straw rocket with 3rd class and up.

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