Space Spectacular #4

Week 6 and 7 - Finding Out, Sorting Out, Making Conclusions, Going Further

The activities in these weeks were designed to provide opportunities for students to find out about space and sort their ideas in a range of forms. Students took a test to demonstrate the conclusions they had made from their learning. We then had an excursion to Questacon for students to take their learning further and explore other scientific concepts through hands on exhibits and shows.

Science

Gravity
One of the focus questions for our unit this term is: What is gravity and how does the force of it pull things on or above the Earth's surface towards it?In preparation, I took the text from Ask an Astronomer for KIDS! and spread out the key ideas on a worksheet:

What Is Gravity

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As we discussed each key idea, students drew a picture to illustrate the concept. I found that this was a helpful way to unpack the ideas. I particularly liked the last point and showed students these photos from when I stood on the special scales in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

We also read and discussed this simple explanation.
We then made artificial satellites as explained in this NASA activity. The gravity of the larger clump of plasticine balances out with the centrifugal force of the smaller clump of plasticine, keeping it 'orbiting'. I'm not sure that this is the best way to describe how orbits work, but it was fun to do anyway! You can see a video of the result below:



Earth's Atmosphere
Jonathan, my teaching partner, crafted the following lesson using this lesson plan found online. In teams of four, students drew the Earth and then added the atmospheric layers using a scale of 1mm=2km. We used this website for further information and also watched this animation to see it all in motion. The only change I would make is that I would make sure the Earth is to scale next time as well, by checking out the diameter of the earth and using a compass to draw it. (I just found this animation that would be helpful as well - too late for us this time, but may help others).

Guest Speaker
"Commander Cooper" (AKA Captain Lister) came to talk to us about his experiences with Space travel. We actually combined two grades - the Year 1s who are learning about transport and the Year 4s who are learning about Space. Yet again, Commander Cooper did an awesome job of engaging students with costumes, photos, videos, student participation and valuable, kid-friendly information about Space travel. Thank you Commander Cooper!

Making Conclusions - Taking the Test
I created this test to determine whether students had achieved the key learning outcomes for the unit of work. I asked them to give as much detail as possible and not just take short-cuts with their answers. I was impressed by how much students demonstrated in their responses and was also surprised when some students asked for a spare copy so they could do it again at lunch, just for fun! As you can see, the test ties very closely to the activities we did throughout the unit.

Space Test

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Going Further - Excursion to Questacon
I've found no better place to take students to experience science on a large scale, than Questacon. It is fun, kid-friendly and brings science to life. Rather than post all the photos separately, I've added a slide show here for you to see.


Integrating with Literacy

Journey to the Moon
Jonathan crafted and taught this lesson. He began with astronaut training, briefing students on some key information about the Moon. They then buckled in as Jonathan used Celestia to take them to the Moon. As they got close, their lunar module experienced difficulty and crash-landed on the surface of the moon. Students worked in small groups, to prioritise a list of items they would need as they travelled toward a space station for support. I found a similar lesson plan here. Students then reported back to the group giving justifications for their choices. This was a very engaging activity and provided students with opportunities to use language to discuss the problem in small groups and also to share their ideas with the whole class.

Descriptive Writing
This activity is similar to one we did about spiders earlier in the year. We looked at some photos of nebulae and created a list of words that could be used to describe them. Students then played with the words (and their own adjectives) to create descriptive pieces of writing. Some had a poetic structure and others were descriptive paragraphs. My plan is for students to type these up and display them with their Nebula Watercolour Paintings from Week 4.

Evaluating Explanations
Earlier in the term students wrote explanations of the life cycle of a star. This week I displayed their posters around the room and gave students mini post-it notes on which to write constructive feedback (one + and one - ) for each other and attach to the posters. I asked that they ensure every poster had some feedback. They continued with this process of reading and providing feedback for about 10 minutes, collecting additional post-it notes as necessary. At the end of the 10 minutes, students collected their own poster and made a circle sitting on the floor. We went around the circle with each student sharing the feedback they received and what they had learnt about themselves as a writer and the process of writing an explanation. It was a great way for students to reflect on their work and learning and to consider areas for improvement in the future.

Reading with Expression and Comprehension
We have had a strong focus on writing during Literacy this term, so I wanted students to have an opportunity to practise some reading as well. Some of the students in my group have become a little lazy with their reading: not self-correcting when reading aloud, and not focusing on what they are comprehending. I decided to address that with some reading aloud about space.
We only had 7 copies of a book called "Life in Space" which provides explanations about elements of space travel, so I grouped students to read together.
Each person was given a topic to master. They needed to be able to read it fluently with expression and to have full comprehension of what it is explaining. Students took turns to read aloud to their group, who then provided feedback on their expression/volume etc.
Next week students will 'perform' their reading to a larger group and explain their topic and/or any diagrams on the page.


If you enjoyed this post, why not check out previous posts in the Space Spectacular Series.

Space Spectacular #2

Week 2 and 3 - Finding Out and Sorting Out

The activities in these weeks were designed to provide opportunities for students to find out about space and sort their ideas in a range of forms. Students typically "found out" through books, videos, websites, experiments and guest speakers. They "sorted out" using writing, diagrams, models, reports and art.

Science
Students experimented with different sized meteors - an orange, a golf ball and a marble. They dropped these from a control height to see how meteor size affected crater size. In addition to this, they dropped the items from a greater height to see how speed affected crater size. Students enjoyed this activity immensely and learnt more about craters as a result.

Special Guest
We had a special guest visitor in our classroom this week. Susan was involved with an experiment involving a small rocket which was sent 400km above the Earth's surface and returned about 400km away from the take-off location. She explained the process involved and showed a video of the take off. Students were fascinated!


Integrating with Literacy

The Planets
As we read through two big books about the planets, students created "wonder clouds" on a worksheet. Students considered the questions left unanswered on each page and wrote them in their wonder clouds to revisit at a later point in time. This activity was designed to develop students questioning activities during the reading process.
Students were then provided with a range of books to use for research. They each chose a planet to research and created a mind map to gather information about the planet's appearance, features, location, history & exploration. When they had gathered sufficient information, they began to write a report using the format on Writing Fun. They then edited it (or had ME edit it!) and began working on a final draft to be made into a class book.

Life Cycle of a Star
Students began by taking 10-15 minutes to write down their prediction of the stages that a star goes through during its lifespan. Following this, we talked about the different ways we find out information - written text, diagrams, pictures, videos, podcasts, songs, teacher-talk. We viewed an explanation of a star's lifecycle through this interactive website. We then listed the positives and negatives of this form of gathering information. I then gave students a photocopy of an explanation from a book. They read through the information, and again we listed the positives and negatives.
In the following lesson we watched this video:

Life Cycle of Star - Click here for the funniest movie of the week
As they watched, students recorded the positives and negatives in their books. When the video finished, they compared notes with a partner and then with a group of four. Finally, we looked at this diagram and discussed the effectiveness of a diagram in the absence of any other information.
Students then began work on their own creations to explain the life cycle of a star to someone with no prior knowledge. They referred back to the resources, discussed their thoughts and ideas with others and considered the aspects mentioned in the positives/negatives charts.

Integrating with Art

Plasticine Models
We used this great activity that I found online to make scale models of the Earth, Mars and the Moon. I gave each student a ball of plasticine and asked them to make a model of Earth, Mars and the Moon to show their comparable sizes. Once students had completed their models, I went around the classroom capturing their "before" photo. I then took them through the process outlined in the lesson plan and took their "after" photo. We looked at the relative distance between the Earth and the Moon for these models. In a follow up lesson (after I had time to print the photos!) students glued their before and after shots on a page and wrote about how their thinking changed as a result of the activity. This will go in their student portfolios as an example of their learning this term.
Before:

After:

Space Art
We looked at some examples of space art that were created using spray paint. I didn't have access to this video at the time, but you might find it useful if you were to teach a similar lesson (not so sure about the choice of song!) We considered the shapes and colours used in these paintings and looked at the way that colours merged together. We discussed elements that would be realistic/unrealistic given what we currently know about space (eg. no trees on other planets.) Students were then given a sheet of black paper and oil pastels to create their own space scene.

Friday Fun - 18/9/09

We've almost made it to the end of the term and with holidays just around the corner, we've been madly trying to finish all the things we've started. As a result, there wasn't a lot of new learning taking place, but rather refining and completing. We did, however, have an exciting excursion to the CSIRO Green Machine...

Fun This Week
We joined in one of the great programs offered at the CSIRO. Students learnt some background information about colour and then explored the colours that are used to make a black marker:

They then created T-shirts using permanent markers and ethanol to spread the colours:
The kids had a lot of fun and proudly wore their new creations. Some thought they should be adopted as part of school uniform!

Before we left the CSIRO, our teacher showed us this awesome experiment using ethanol:


We then walked to the Botanic Gardens for lunch on nice green lawn in the shade of big trees. We took a walk through the 'rainforest' and saw some lizards down by the loos, before hopping back on the bus and returning to school.

Teaching "Transport"

I'm not teaching transport anytime soon, but I recently gave some tips to someone who is. So, rather than help just one person, I've decided to share the tips here as well, just in case someone is searching for ideas.

These activities are designed with primary school aged kids in mind (K-6) and generally take a Science/Technology slant.

• If your students are in grade 3 or up, you could consider linking it in with a bike safety unit.
• Have students explore science/technology concepts through tasks -
  build a boat using only paper that will carry a 5c piece from one side of sink to other
  explore flight and discuss the forces that keep a plane in flight
  make those little paper helicopter things
• More science/technology projects can be found here.
• This book looks helpful.
• Create a timeline that shows how people built on one another's ideas to make technological advances with transport. How did these changes better meet people's needs? What impact did they have on society?
• For Teachers in Australia: On the 30th March 2009 at 10am the ABC is running a 15 minute program on Boats in a series called "Take on Technology" for Lower Primary.
  On the 1st April at 10.55am the ABC is running a 5 minute spot on Charles Kingsford Smith in a series called "Australians" designed for Upper Primary. The ABC is running a whole series about transport on For The Juniors at 10am (15 min slots) on following dates. (Second date is the repeat)
  29 Apr 30 Apr Land
  6 May 7 May Water
  13 May 14 May Air
• The website "How Stuff Works" has great explanations of how things work! Here's one on bicycles to get you started: http://www.howstuffworks.com/bicycle3.htm
• The website "How everyday things are made" is absolutely brilliant, but I haven't had much of a chance to use it yet. Amongst other things, they explain how airplanes, motorcycles and cars are made.
• Look at different transport around the world and how this meets particular needs - motorcycles in Vietnam, subways in big cities etc. For thousands of images of transport in a slideshow you can go to http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=transport&s=int Just be warned, not all pictures are vehicles as it's based on a search of the word "transport". If you click on "Show info" in top right hand corner, you will find what the photographer has said about the picture.
• You can also find videos on YouTube or TeacherTube that relate to transport. It might be fun to take a pretend ride in a helicopter by watching a video taken from a helicopter. These videos are very easy to download now using kickyoutube. Instructions are here: http://blip.tv/file/1660808/
• You could look into who would visit your school - fire brigade, waste management, subway conductors etc. Or consider visiting a transit museum.
• See if you can set up a tinkering station where students can tinker with bicycle parts, old toy cars, steering wheels or whatever you can get your hands on.
• Buy or borrow "Cut-away" books that allow you to see cut away diagrams of inside different types of transport. Here is one on The Titanic.
• Think about environmental aspects of different forms of transport.
• Students design their own form of transport to meet particular needs (could design without making) perhaps use the SCAMPER framework to help them think through how they can improve existing models.
• Lego makes great technology kits that help children discover about gears, pulleys etc. These may be costly to get set up, but may be worthwhile if your school is looking to enhance their technology resources.
• Fantastic Contraptions is a popular physics game that might tie in. (I don't really get it - was never good at physics!)
• Billy cart building and racing. Toward the end of the unit, see if you can get some parent helpers on board. Look online and find plans and examples of billy carts. Discuss the merits of different types. Design and build one or more billy carts and test them out.
• UPDATE 30/3/09 Check out the Merriam Webster Visual Dictionary Online to interact with some great labeled diagrams of transport related items.