[Niall Smith]

Welcome Laura! Thankyou for the fun fact which is popular here. You’ll see some interesting discussions related to it which might give you some ideas.

[Niall Smith]

Hi again Alma. This is a very open-ended lesson which has such great potential. It is also important that our kids have some sense of what makes earth special as a place to live. And why we must therefore protect it. Lots of opporuntity for cross-curricular learning as you note.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Alma, welcome and thanks for you fun space fact. I totally agree that the sheer vastness of the space beyond earth is so interesting. Remarkable to know that we have only had an idea of the size of the universe since around 1921 when Edwin Hubble produced the first robust estimate. It’s truly incredible to think that before 1921 scientists had debate after debate about the size of the universe, but only when Edwin Hubble provided some insightful observations could those debates be resolved. A really strong example of the importance of good observations followed by careful and robust analysis.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Tracy, do not worry that you have limited knowledge about space. We all have limited knowledge! You’ll get lots of ideas about how to use space in the classroom and what you’ll see is that a small proportion relies on knowing about space and a large proportion relies on confidence in using inquiry-based approaches where “knowing” is less important than doing, observing, predicting, reflecting.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Katie, thanks for the fun fact and welcome to the forum. The behaviour of Venus has some interesting implications which have been touched on here. It has sometimes been called “Earth’s twin” because of its similar size, but it’s very very different in almost every other aspect!

[Niall Smith]

Hi Susan, lovely to have you on the forum. This is a popular fun space fact, but it does allow the class to question why the footprints last on the moon. You can even replicate the effect of wind on a sandy footprint in class with a simple fan, or indeed see how running water also erases the footprint. The Moon has neither wind nor running water, so these mechanisms don’t erase footprints there.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Kate-Anne. welcome to the forum where I think you’ll find your excitement about space finds a welcome home and many like-minded teachers! Space offers so many opportunities for not only inquiry-based learning, but also inspiration, questioning, imagining ….  You’ll see that we keep emphasising in the forum that teachers don’t need to know all the answers or be experts about space to use it in their classrooom.

[Niall Smith]

Thanks Claire. That’s a nice lesson and well laid out. Lots of engagement with the children and opportunities for them to come up with and share ideas.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Eimear, welcome! I think you’ll already see from reading contributions to the various modules that there are lots of great ideas, many tried and tested in class already.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Claire, welcome to the forum. There are lots of interesting fun space facts to choose from and thanks for your one about Saturn. It’s a great example of the difference between size and density. It’s remarkable to think that a huge ship can float, but a small pebble or grain of sand will sink. You can try an experiment where the class make a boat from paper and watch it float; then watch as a small pebble sinks; then watch as the same small pebble in the boat floats.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Claire, welcome and thanks for that interesting fact. I wonder why the Earth was never named after a Greek or Roman God!

[Niall Smith]

Thanks for that lesson Anna. There’s some great footage of Apollo astronauts going around in their buggy and you can see that because the gravity on the Moon is one sixth that on Earth that the buggy kicks up a lot of dust. Indeed dust gets everywhere on the Moon and is a real issue that needs to be understood. You could ask the kids if a buggy on the Moon or Mars would be different to one on Earth. Or even on some distant planet that they imagine themselves! That might add a nice space angle.

[Niall Smith]

Hi Lauren, welcome and thankyou for that great fun space fact. It really emphasises the fact that when astronauts go into space for long periods they need to have psychological endurance and patience, as you say. The complex human interactions that go on when you put people into a confined space for a long period of time is critcally important to understand. For short duration missions, such as those which last about 10 minutes and are increasingly popular amongst people who can afford to pay, there isn’t the same need for training or psychological endurance or patience. But JAXA doesn’t do such missions as they consider them to be relevant to space tourism primarily.

[Niall Smith]

Welcome Shauna. Thanks for the fun space fact. Grains of sand can also come in different sizes, just as stars do. Our Sun is a very typical star, but the most common stars in the Universe are much smaller and are called “red dwarfs”. They make up 75% of stars.  These are much fainter and cooler than our sun. If you put one of these in place of the sun the Earth would be much colder, possibly permanently frozen. So we’re lucky to have a star that’s big enough to heat us up!

[Niall Smith]

Thanks Suzanne. I am always amazed that if you make a sheet of paper into a kind of concertina shape (a bit like corrugated iron) it’s so much stronger and can support some impressive weights compared to a flat sheet – yet it’s the same material!

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