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Hilary, The build-up activities and stimuli before the big rocket mice experiment are very engaging, and would certainly add to the fantasy and wonder of the experiment. As you said, the ketchup bottle example is a very relatable way for them to understand pressure. Getting them to try out different containers and mice, rather than just getting one go at it, is definitely a window of opportunity for them to construct their own learning
I have chosen to focus on the Alien Chemistry activity set. The fizzing and foaming activity could be adapted to work in any class level in the junior end of the school. For 1st or 2nd class, I would tie this to a previous ART/STEM lesson where children collaborated in building a rocket ship from recycled materials. This lesson our rockets will be blasting off and it is our job to create the rocket fuel. I would provide a range of acids (Lemon juice, orange juice, vinegar, cola), carbonates (eggshells, chalk, baking soda, washing powder) and maybe even some red-herrings, such as flour, sugar, water and milk. The children will roll a dice twice to randomly select a pairing of an acid (or milk/water) and a carbonate (or flour/sugar). The children will observe the effectiveness of their rocket fuel. After discussion and conferencing with the teacher, the group could choose to substitute their original carbonate or acid for another, in the aim to improve their rocket fuel’s fizziness. This could be a fun, discrete form of assessment for the teacher to gauge the children’s learning.
Rohana, these are very nice hands-on activities that ensure the learning is meaningful to the children, kids in younger years definitely enjoy following a theme like weather as it can help them to draw ideas and make links across subjects and strands
The website ESA- Space for Kids is a very practical online tool that can be used in the younger years of primary school. With games, news, activity ideas and even competitions, there is great scope for new STEM- focused learning opportunities in SSE that can also tie into other subjects such as literacy, music, drama and Visual Arts. I could utilise the tools from this website for a lesson’s stimulus, main activity or for an extension activity. For example, the multimedia tab could be a good source of a picture or video to prompt discussion on prior knowledge. The Things to do tab offers age-appropriate activity ideas that could be child-lead. The games tab has a range of engaging end-of-lesson activities that could reinforce new learning, such as the Milkyway matchup game or the space cleanup. One additional tool that this website offers is the language tab- I think this could be a very nice way to promote and celebrate any EAL students’ home languages, an important means of integration.
Whilst using websites such as ESA can be a helpful tool in the classroom, it is important to be cognisant that these lessons should also allow for some child-lead learning and discussion.
Niamh, I think your idea of using geoboards with elastic bands and threading boards to create star constellations is very creative, engaging and meaningful for the children. Such an easy substitute for drawing, but feel it would resonate with the children much more!
Lesson idea: Design a martian (or a ‘clay’lien’!)
This is a lesson I have done with a lot of senior classes, but the bones of it would still be very suitable for the junior classes. From reading through the Mars classroom resource, I can see how what I previously have just used as an art lesson could so easily be tied into STEM! I have an ‘Alien Adventure’ poem I wrote as a stimulus for 3rd class poetry last year that I feel could be repurposed for this junior-level lesson. I would hope it could spark discussions about what martians/aliens might look like, where they might live etc.. If they don’t respond well to it, a short clip from ET couldn’t fail me!
I would take inspiration from the Mars resource and get the children to draw their ideas before moving on to clay work- I have found even with senior classes that most children benefit from planning out their ideas thoroughly, rather than jumping in and getting frustrated when they can’t get their ideas across in their clay.
A nice extension idea to link with Drama could be a hotseat activity- the children introduce their new pet clayliens and take questions from the audience.
Michelle, I really like the activity of categorising activities into day and night hoola hoops- definitely a nice tie in with the strand unit of time in maths.
I would take the concept of the sun and shadows as an opportunity to go outdoors on a sunny day to explore how shadows are formed. I would bring out a football and a rugby ball as a trigger for engagement- what can we see here? What differences are there? How can we see what these are? What if it was night time- could we see the balls more or less clearly? Then address the shadows and their shapes.
The children could then explore the yard space by finding different objects and discussing and experiment with the shadows. I liked the idea of using chalk to outline shadows from the sun activities booklet. An extension on that could be to trace the children’s shadows in the morning, and compare them at lunchtime/ at the end of the day. This could offer a further challenge/higher order questions for the high achievers.
I really like that activity Ciara, it is bringing in a real- world problem that kids are likely to be familiar with to a smaller scale in the classroom. And the orange extension idea is brilliant… I can’t imagine the explanations the children would have for why the unpeeled floats despite it being heavier!
My name is Sam, I have 1st class next year. I am nervous but excited to return to the junior end of the school! My favourite science fact is that hummingbirds flutter their wings 80 times per second!
I know that the class I have next year enjoyed a lot of water-based play in Aistear in JI & SI. On top of this, 1st class become more involved in our school’s green flag committee, which is currently focusing on marine environmental care. I feel that these combined could be a great trigger for engagement in relevant STEM lessons, such as a float/sink lesson. They can use prior knowledge to make predictions as to what will sink/float and stimulate discussion in the wondering section of the lesson. They can also use what they are learning about weight in maths to justify their predictions. Finally in the exploring section the children would engage in a fun, inquiry-lead activity in which they explore what classroom objects sink and which float.
I am very excited by the framework for inquiry that was introduced to us in this module, as I feel it will guide me in structuring Science lessons this year. It is the one subject I am not always confident teaching.
