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Maeve,
you could go a bit deeper into how houses are adapted for different climate and weather conditions, perhaps by using
which has images of shelters from around the world to be matched with weather.
The language of this resource is a bit beyond Infants, but the selection of images is super.
Lorraine,
you’ll get a chance to meet some penguins and a polar bear in the fourth module. Simple inquiry activities arise from the questions the children ask, and in this example they have wondered how animals stay warm, have been given the chance to make a prediction (animals that have blubber can keep warmer than animals without) and then have tested it by using their own fingers coated with blubber.
Blubber glove is another variant on this, see https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/blubber-gloves for an example.
Hi Maeve,
here is a taster of the book you mention, which is a new recommendation.
https://youtu.be/22vszc4TEJA?si=n_XHcu5p7CyF_DJc
There is a read along here.
I like how gravity has been personified and is not being a good friend to Leda in the story.
Of note is the ramp that the library cart rolls down. Ramps are a nice way to slow down falling objects in order to measure the time they take to fall (roll). This is how Galileo was able to observe falling objects in the early 1600s and realise that velocity was proportional to acceleration.
https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.mfw.galileoplane/galileos-inclined-plane/
We have mentioned before how powerful a tool ramps can be in the primary classroom, see https://regentsctr.uni.edu/ramps-pathways/ramps-pathways,
and ramps may be a way for the children to be able to see which object goes faster, since “Ask students to think, pair share which object fell quicker. Give groups objects to test themselves” In dropping pairs of objects to see which one lands first, they are likely to fall too fast to note unless one object experiences much more air resistance than another. If that happens, then it is the air resistance that is making the difference.
Órnaith,
Please do register your class (or school) event at Space Week. The event can be the activity you plan for your class and does not need to be a public event for others to attend, although you may want to invite parents to visit the class to share the Space adventure their children have been on during the week.
You can register at https://www.spaceweek.ie/add/
If you would like to apply for a slot for ESERO Space Goes to School, which matches a speaker to a school, you can register your interest here: https://www.spaceweek.ie/for-organisers/for-teachers/space-speaker-in-your-classroom/
Pól,
I like how this activity has been planned to access a range of curricular objectives, including Science / Materials – I presume Infants > describe and compare materials, noting the differences in the colour, shape and texture
and 1st/2nd class: begin to explore how different materials may be used in the construction of homes suited to their environments
It could be interesting to survey the local area if any houses are currently under construction. Or, you could use images from Google Maps of the area or historical images from Google Earth to find houses under construction. (see here for a guide: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/travel-back-time-google-street-view/)
There is this area near to Blackrock where new apartments are being built:
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8831256,-8.3879657,460a,35y,271.6h,44.82t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
Heidi,
You have nicely matched the increasingly more complex rockets to the older classes. See also the “Rocket a Day” from Scoil Chaitríona Renmore, who are great supporters of Space Week each year.
http://junior.renmoreschool.com/Space/Index.html
With the foam rockets for 2nd class you have the opportunity to discuss fair testing, as different lengths of foam, different elastics and different distance the elastic is pulled will all make a difference to the distance travelled.
Veronica,
you can find a single page image of this activity as part of the ISS Primary Education Kit, at this link: https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/primedukit/en/PrimEduKit_ch2_en.pdf
on page 57.
There is a requirement for some fine motor skills to make this rocket, some children find it tricky to get the first part of the paper wrapped around the pencil. For those children you might consider this variant: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/rockets-guide-20-321-puff.pdf?emrc=9e78ae
Eileen,
I like how you have planned to try two quite different rocket models, the Rocket Mice and the balloon rockets.
To make the balloon rockets seem more rocket-like you could fix the string vertically. We did a similar activity last year during Space Week, building up to “Heavy Lifters.” The heavy lifting task could be a “take the next step” for children who find the balloon rocket task straightforward.
Dayna,
thank you for sharing a lovely lesson outline, so suitable for infants.
Have you seen this site with further ideas and a delightful stop motion animation version of the story?
Aoife,
there is more information about the Drinking Gourd here. I’d suggest reviewing the night sky in class and then setting a homework of viewing it. You might use this resource from SpaceWeek.ie The Plough Clock with an older class, this will show the Plough in the correct orientation for the time of night and time of year.
Their own version of the Plough is part of this activity.
Both of these Plough themed activities can assist the children in identifying the asterism of the Plough, but I think it would be tricky to extend this into a true Inquiry activity that uses the full Framework of Inquiry as outlined in Module 1.
Fiona,
I have deleted your duplicate post.
I like how you have planned to feature Norah Patten (https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0620/1455670-space-dr-norah-patten/), she is a great Irish role model, and has an active social media presence with regular video updates at https://www.facebook.com/SpaceNorah/
She is also a published author and did this Ask Me Anything in 2020.
Aaron,
connecting the imaginative world of aliens to the scientific details of their habitat is a great way to connect science into the topic. At Blackrock Castle we run a workshop on “Planets and Aliens” and make aliens from tin foil in a similar way to this:
https://youtu.be/mTQVrnCDRsQ?si=upFCK6PcSO2r_tuz
Aoife,
Do you have an outline for this activity? Heated Air is quite a general topic and I am not sure how it links to Sun and Shadows Toolkit.
It seems as if you might be considering making a hot air balloon, which I have seen done at second level, but not at primary.
Curious Minds has water fountain, which uses warm air to make water into a fountain. There is also PopTop.
With regards to the explicit teaching of “discussing the properties of gases and the kinetic theory of matter,” please note that the SESE Science curriculum refers to:
matter: anything that takes up space and has mass; all substances and materials can be called matter; solid, liquid and gas are the terms used to describe the three states of matter; it is possible to convert one state into another by either heating or cooling
In Junior Cycle Science students will “develop and use models to describe the atomic nature of matter … ”
When developing predictions at primary level I would not use the language of “hypothesis formulation,” but ask them to explain what they think might happen in terms of their own understanding.
You mention precise measurements and controls. What measurements would you expect them to make? A discussion about precision vs accuracy would be of interest to some of the more able children, but is generally a Leaving Cert Physics discussion. Controls in experiments tend to appear more in biology, so what would you expect the children to control? Would they keep one balloon at room temperature? Place another inflated balloon into the fridge? Place a third balloon into sunlight?
Heidi,
I like your connection to home via the Tiny Planet Book and a discussion about favourite planet. As commented earlier, at BCO we use Model Magic and it is a lovely material to work with that dries to a bounce.
They come out much like this: https://www.dianalevine.com/homeschool/2020/7/22/model-magic-planets
Ornaith,
the inquiry framework you have used is close to the 5E and shares some features with the Framework for Inquiry that is used by Science Foundation Ireland’s Curious Minds programme.
You have a prompt -picture or videos of day vs night.
I’d suggest that instead of “make observations about the sky,” that you make observations of the sky. The Moon can be seen in the daytime sky (see the material in Module 2) at some times of the month, this can be a direct experience that the children will remember.
It is less clear how working with torches and cutouts of the Moon and stars will help children to understand that the Moon and stars are luminous objects, since they will be lighting them up by shining a light on them, rather than observing them as lit objects of their own.
You might want to look as this ESERO activity Light and Darkness, to investigate “what objects look like when there is no light and look at
objects that give off light.”
