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Muireann,
counting sections of an image is a great way to use estimation to gather data.
If your image includes a swathe of the Milky Way, this can lead to an purposeful discussion about how stars are not evenly distributed around us. For a further step, you could ask the children if it would be possible to tell where the Sun and Earth are in the Milky Way by looking at the star counts in different directions.
The image from Lots and Lots of Stars could work, or this image from ESO called GigaGalaxy Zoom and here.
Eimear,
Please review the activities in the module, where Draw a Constellation or Make a Star Lantern ask the children to use their mathematical awareness around the theme of stars.
The sensory activity you have mentioned
I would set up a darkened room with twinkling lights or glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling to create a night sky effect
seem more suitable to actual infant children, rather than Infants in the Irish primary school system. Similarly, soft star objects for tactile sense seems a bit too juvenile.
Note that the curriculum expects:
stars in Geography (Infants: identify and discuss the sun, the moon
and stars)and the Sun in Science (recognise that the sun gives us heat and light, without which we could not survive and become aware of the dangers of looking directly at the sun in 1st class)
You could link stars to day and night with globes and models, or by having bright lights with dimmer lights near them to model the Sun ‘overpowering’ the much fainter stars.
Elaine,
would the children’s predictions at the beginning be based on anything more than a guess? If so, then this would make an excellent prompt – and they could be asked after a day what they think would happen the next day. In this way, their understanding is being tested, rather than them guessing and finding out.
One child might think: the gummy bear started small and it got big because it took in water, but it is like my stomach – there is a point when you can’t put any more in, so it won’t get any bigger.
Another might think: the gummy bear got bigger because the water went into it. The outside of the bear can still get bigger, so it will still get even bigger.
Another might think: the gummy bear is mixing with the water, so in another day the gummy bear will be sludge in the glass.
These three different predictions are based on their understanding and have testable results, which you then do over the next day so that they can share their results.
If a child has another question – I wonder if this would be the same in milk? (they might say that milk is mostly water, so yes) – then that would be a testable take the next step.
Here is an example of a home group that tried lots of different liquids.
Hi Mark,
a resource from Night Sky Network is here:
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=317
This has an activity outline and a power point, with a video of the activity in action.
We have a larger version of this gravity bucket that we used with summer camp children. Colleague Danielle and Cian used it with this short video on Jupiter.
Hi Elaine,
I like how you have restricted the children to rafts, so that floating is the key issue, and the rather more complex ideas of buoyancy and boat design can be met when they are a bit older.
In Cork one of the local councillors has run a Model Boat competition for a number of years (14!). This year’s rules are here: https://corkharbourfestival.com/register-now-lord-mayor-kieran-mccarthys-make-a-model-boat-project-2024/
and previous year’s images can be found on his website.
https://youtu.be/JkAAhec70Cw?si=AoLijhjT2DKTw2sd
Have you a large pond nearby that they might use to float their boat?
Sharon,
one of our colleagues at Blackrock Castle ends her planetarium shows with “what is one difference between a planet and a star? — not sure — well, think of the old favourite ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Planet’ — what? I said it wrong? — then there’s a difference.”
I have seen these made with star stickers or yellow plasticine stars, all can be effective. The interesting learning around mathematics will come when the children look at the models from different angles and see that the Plough Shape is only visible if you are directly above, or, if you hang these on the ceiling , directly below the model.
Eoghan,
given the changes that are coming with respect to STEM in the Irish primary curriculum, I think it is important to assess where your school currently is on STEM.
There are changes around SESE vs Science, Technology, and Engineering Education and Social and Environmental Education which have changed the time allocation over a month. As this course has tried to show, Geography Skills and Science Skills work so well together, so that may be a way to continue to offer science within the 3h 20 min to 4 hours a month that is suggested for junior classes.
Felicity,
have you a class set of torches? I have found that the more inexpensive torches are often multiple LED lights and when they act as a source of light, multiple shadows are made.
It might be worth looking at getting some desk lamps if you have plugs that can be used safely with your classroom arrangement.
Eoghan,
how will you measure the speed? I think it is more likely that you will use a fixed height and drop two objects together and see which one hits the ground first, in essence comparing time.
Note that using the actual formula pushes this activity very much to the upper end of primary.
(Maths has Explores the relationship between time, distance and speed, but as a j).
By using different objects, the variable the children will be investigating is likely to be surface area. If they are also varying mass, then comparing objects will be quite difficult.
This Gravity resource from Engineers Week structures the inquiry slightly and might make it easier to ensure that the learners are building up their knowledge.
Siobhan,
thank you for sharing your space week plan, please do register your school as hosting an “event” at spaceweek.ie. The activities you have described would make up the event. If you wanted to showcase at the end of the week and invite parents to visit, then that could be part of the Curious Minds Awards as well.
Hold a science open day or evening where students present their STEM work to the school, parents or wider community.
Michelle,
thank you for sharing the video link, what a lovely, informative video it is to act as a clear prompt for the children.
The questions that you ask and the children can then wonder allows them to share what they understand as they pose their own starter questions.
Blubber glove can be a very clear way to show the effect of insulation.
Some of the concepts will also be covered by older classes, particularly in relation to adaptation for environmental conditions, but this is such a clear theme that is very suitable for younger children.
Niamh,
I like your relevant context for this investigation activity, which could be treated as both science content learning and as applying learning in a design and make.
Keeping Jacko dry is very important, and in the summer months you could revisit this to make a sun parasol to keep him from getting sunburnt.
A quick google search for an image to support your prompt gave me this:
Hello Sharon,
Have you a particular story book in mind? If you review some of the previous posts in the forum you will find a wealth of suggestions.
You could also look at the ESERO activity Day and Night in the World about nocturnal animals or What do you do in Day (part of Module 2’s downloads).
What do you expect the children will do with the cotton wool when they create day and night scenes?
You might want to look ahead to the Sun resource (also part of Module 2) from Dr Maeve Liston from Mary Immaculate that suggests:
Activity: The Day and Night Sky
You will need: Pictures of the day and night sky, paper and crayons.
1. Place different pictures of the day and night sky on display and ask the children “what are the differences?” between the two.
Questions: Describe the sky during the day. Describe the sky at night. What is the difference between day and night?
2. Ask them to list as many things they see in the sky at night (Moon, Stars) and during the day (Sun, Moon, Clouds). Get them to describe shapes, size, textures and colours of these objects and the sky using descriptive and comparative language for example light, dark, bright, shade etc. Discuss how we are never in total darkness because of the Moon and stars.
3. Ask them to draw pictures of a day and night sky or make a collage of a day and night sky as a whole class group.Your questions are interesting, we have found that in response to “Why do you think it gets dark at night?” young children tend to offer people-centric responses such as “So we can go to sleep”, and so we often re-word this to ask “What do you think is happening to the world when it gets dark?”
Robyn,
Offering children a playful opportunity to explore magnets is very much in keeping with the inquiry process as described by the Framework for Inquiry and perfectly fits the SESE Science Curriculum for Infants (• investigate the fact that magnets attract certain materials /• investigate materials for different properties, for example materials that are attracted by magnets )
Through their play they will explore and wonder. If they then form the mental model that metals are magnetic it is valuable to include some metals that are not magnetic in the materials that the children test. Coins are an easy option, as are jewelry items made from silver or gold, and aluminium cans.
The curriculum for 1st and 2nd class looks at specific metals: (• investigate that magnets attract magnetic materials, such as iron and steel). So, depending on the school plan for Science, you may want to plan for play with Infants and a deeper exploration at 1st/2nd class level.
Hi Síle,
are you familiar with the ESA videos that told the story of Rosetta?
ESA made a cartoon characters that voiced the different spacecraft.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2016/12/The_amazing_adventures_of_Rosetta_and_Philae
https://youtu.be/HD2zrF3I_II?si=HoJPXXLAiYzjsh4O
The “science” ones are here.
When we opened the science exhibition at Blackrock Castle in 2007, Rosetta was still enroute to Comet 67P, so we included an interactive game that was based on landing on the comet.