[Robyn Jones]

Hi, my name is Robyn. I worked with senior infants this year and will be teaching 5th class next school year. My fun space fact is that astronauts grow taller when they are in space due to the lack of gravity.

An inquiry based lesson that I have done before was one involving magnets. Children watched a section from a video by SciShow Kids about magnets (https://youtu.be/5hH5radPWHo) and took part in a class discussion, facilitated by the teacher, about what magnets are and what magnetic means.
Students were then given the opportunity to play with magnets of different sizes, shapes, and strengths. They experimented in their table groups by using the magnets with different materials like paper plates, toilet paper rolls, iron filings, plastic counters, and paper clips. After being given time to use the materials, students discussed what materials they used that were attracted to the magnet and why that might be.
Students concluded that metallic materials were magnetic while paper and plastic were not. Students then discussed examples of magnets they have seen in their daily lives like fridge magnets, toys, and jewellery. They then drew pictures of the different materials in their copies and labeled them as magnetic or not magnetic.

[Robyn Jones]

Hi Muireann,

I like that you had a discussion with students about what a good parachute should be able to do and that they were able to decide the success criteria for their experiment!

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