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Such a good idea to look at the folklore from a weather perspective. It would be lovely to get some senior members of the community to talk about weather lore. It would be a memorable occasion for everyone.
Design your own Dark Sky Place is an activity that children would be excited by. They would be drawn to the role-play aspect, so I believe this project would be both engaging and enjoyable for them. The example video from the school in Mayo showed how effective this type of project can be in helping students understand and appreciate the concept of Dark Sky places.
To start, I would introduce the children to the concept of Dark Sky places, explaining why they are important and what makes them special. I would also share information about the three designated Dark Sky locations in Ireland, highlighting what makes each one unique.
Next, I would have the students work in groups to brainstorm and come up with a list of essential elements for creating their own Dark Sky place. They would need to consider several factors, such as how to design the space, what materials and features would be necessary to reduce light pollution, and who the place would be designed for—whether it’s for stargazers, wildlife conservation, or educational purposes.
Each group would be encouraged to think creatively about the challenges they might face in creating their Dark Sky place, such as finding ways to minimize artificial light, ensuring safety, and making the area accessible to everyone. I would assign specific roles within each group, such as project manager, designer, researcher, and presenter, to ensure that every child is actively involved in the process.
Once the groups have developed their ideas, they would present their designs to the class. This would be an opportunity for them to explain their thought process, the features of their Dark Sky place, and how they addressed potential challenges. After all the presentations, the class could hold a vote to decide which project would be the most feasible or creative.
Finally, as a class, we could collaborate to create our own Dark Sky place, either within the classroom or somewhere on the school grounds. This could involve setting up a mock-up of the design. This activity would not only be a fun and educational experience for the students but also help them develop teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
This is a very comprehensive lesson plan, with lots of great ideas. It’s well thought out and will be very useful when covering the topic of biodiversity.
Biodiversity is a subject that captivates children’s attention. I would begin by explaining what biodiversity means and then I would use photographs of nocturnal and diurnal animals to spark their curiosity. Together, we could list the animals that live in our local area, and we could classify animals based on whether they are nocturnal or diurnal. I would encourage the children to jot down questions about how dark skies and light pollution may affect these animals, and then we could embark on an investigation to find the answers.
Beside our school, there’s an area surrounded by trees, which is a great spot for observing wildlife. We are very fortunate in our school as we have a biodiversity expert who comes into each of the 3rd classes once a month throughout the school year to allow students to learn about their surrounding biodiversity. He completes activities such as bird identification and bird walks, insect hunts, winter adaptations, animal communication, etc. The children absolutely love the activities they engage in with him.
We also have a school garden which the children take great pride in. The children love seeing the impact they can have in supporting biodiversity.You have mentioned lots of useful activities that could be used in conjunction with lessons on light pollution. The website link has a great map, which would be good to compare light pollution in different countries.
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
My local area is in a city, so there is a lot of light pollution. Based on the 1997 and 2015 maps of Ireland, there was a huge increase in light pollution between those years, which is sad to see. There is a lot of unnecessary light being used and it would be an interesting topic to cover with children, particularly as it is affecting the night sky and biodiversity.
I would use the Curious Minds/ESERO Framework for Inquiry with the children, when covering this topic. I would begin with a trigger question and then I would get the children to come up with questions based on what they are wondering about. I would show them the video “What is Light Pollution?” to help them to learn about what light pollution is. Working in pairs, I would ask the children to come up example of natural light and artificial light. We would look at some photographs and videos of light being used in cities/towns, on streets, around houses. We could do an investigation into how we can reduce light pollution. Based on the findings of the investigation, we would come up with a plan on what we should do next.
A class concept map is a great way to elicit background knowledge from the children. I use these in several subjects and at the end of the lesson, the class revisits it and fill in new knowledge. The Paxi video was so informative and it would work well as part of a lesson on the different phases of the moon.
Create a short teaching resource using Stellarium
I think the constellations is such an interesting topic and one that the children would really enjoy learning about. There are lots of useful resources in this module for learning about constellations such as “What can you see? Looking at Constellations”, “Draw your own Constellations” and the Curious Minds “Plough activity.” Star Wheels are another great way to learn and investigate the constellations.
I would introduce Stellarium to the children. We have ipads in our school, so I would demonstrate to the children how to use Stellarium. They could then explore the constellations in different places around the world and take note of the change in location of the constellations. They could switch between constellation mode and art mode to see how the Ancient Greeks represented the different constellations. The children could copy the constellations from Stellarium onto a page and they could try to create their own art to represent each constellation.
A virtual travel journal sounds like a great idea. I like how you are incorporating creative writing. Drama activities could be used in conjunction with this also. This is something I look forward to trying out in the next school year.
1. Gravity/Weight
Module 1 “Our Earth in Space” had lots of useful activities to use in the classroom to help children to understand about day and night, gravity and seasons. I particularly liked the planetary picnic activity where children experience how the force of gravity varies around the solar system by feeling how the weight of a familiar object would change on different planets. Children are always so much more engaged in learning when they are investigating and doing hands-on activities. I would like to try the weight and gravity activities. I would ask the children to come up with ideas on how we could represent gravity on each planet. They could work in groups to plan how they would create their planet and how they would demonstrate the correct level of gravity on their planet. Groups would have to consult with other groups in the class to come up with the best solution to show how gravity affects the different planets. I think the children would really enjoy this activity and it would involve lots of discussion, planning, designing, problem solving,
construction and cooperation. The finished product could be used to demonstrate to younger classes how gravity works.
