Space Week, Ireland’s newest national STEM week in parallel with World Space Week, takes place from October 3rd to 8th. It is a special week to focus on the wonders and realities of the Universe around us.
Participating in Space Week with your class means you will use the powers of creativity, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering and maths to help shape your understanding of life on Earth and our place in Space.
How to get involved?
Find classroom toolkits on www.spaceweek.ie that can boldly take your class where no class has gone before! (ok – not really, these have all been tested and trialled).
These toolkits are based on two different themes and each theme includes a variety of activities, with suggested class levels and a DPSM/ESERO Framework for inquiry overview.
- Sizes and Scales in the Solar System: how big is big and how do all those planets fit into the solar system? This classroom toolkit can be found in English or Irish here
The Solar System is a broad topic that can inspire children and stoke their imaginations on many different levels. As a theme it also provides an opportunity to teach across many areas of the primary school curriculum; as well as science, history, geography, mathematics, English comprehension, visual arts and drama, even P.E. can be brought into lessons based on this theme. Here, the objective is to understand the scale of the Solar System by modelling the size of all the Planets, plus the distance of each from the Sun.
- Mars: the Red Planet: could we ever live on Mars? Is there life there now? This classroom toolkit can be found in English or Irish here
Mars is similar yet different to the Earth. The differences help to highlight what is special about our planet. If humans were to live anywhere else in the solar system, Mars would be the best option.
If schools register on the Space Week website this week and let them know that they are doing an event, they will receive some space goodies in the post next week.
