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I agree completely Sharon. A lot of people are just not aware of the existence of Light Pollution Let alone the impact that light pollution is having. By implementing small changes and making children aware and conscientious at a young age will help improve the problem.
Module 3 Assignment
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.I suspect most children in my class aren’t even aware that light pollution exists. This module has opened my own eyes to the issue, and I’m curious to see how they’ll respond when I ask, “What can you tell me about light pollution?” or “What are its impacts?”
Dark sky planning guidelines offer practical tips to reduce light pollution, supporting both the preservation of our night skies and the work of astronomers. The International Dark-Sky Association’s Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting—targeted, useful, low, controlled, and colour-appropriate—provide an excellent framework for the children to follow.
Learners could investigate light pollution by conducting studies in the school grounds, at home, and in their local communities. Activities from the ESERO “Light and Darkness” pack would be a great starting point. Equipped with the IDA’s Five Principles, they could explore their surroundings and gather evidence of how artificial light affects our area. The ESA “Magic of Light” packs would also provide valuable learning opportunities.
Even though we are a rural school and light pollution is less obvious than in urban areas, it can still be reduced. Raising awareness is key. The children could design posters to display in school and around the community, and use the school website to promote their message. Perhaps, with enough effort, our area could even earn a place on Ireland’s Official Dark Sky Places map alongside Kerry, Mayo, and Davagh Forest Park.
Create an observing plan for autumn that shows which planets are visible in the evening sky.
Using resources such as timeanddate.com and Stellarium, I found out that autumn is an excellent time for stargazing. In early September Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Venus will all be visible to the naked eye. With a telescope or good binoculars, Uranus and Neptune can also be spotted. Stellarium is an amazing tool and Stargazing Ireland is also really helpful.
In class, I would introduce timeanddate.com and Stellarium on the iPads, then send links home for parents. Students could either search for suggested planets or create their own observing plan. They could take photos and send them to me for sharing on the interactive whiteboard, or work on them digitally by labelling images or making their own drawings.
I can differentiate this lesson by providing the pupils with a template and a ready-made list of dates and times to stargaze or alternatively they can choose what to search for and how to record their observations. In advance, we will explore the differences between stars, planets, and constellations and make our own Starwheels.
Although the focus is on planets, they can also observe the stars and constellations too.
Setting this as an after-school task would also require some extra support for pupils with limited tech access, but it is still very achievable and parents I’m sure would be more than happy to help and observe too.
Gravity/Weight – Assemble an Earth Tube and one other planet tube – decorate in a suitable manner.
To begin with I would introduce gravity to the children by explaining how it varies from planet to planet depending on each planet’s size and mass. We would discuss how our weight changes with gravitational pull, while our mass stays the same.
For the Earth Tube, pupils could work together to make them and decorate them with familiar Earth features. For the second tube, they can choose another planet Venus, Jupiter, Mars etc. If we selected Mars, for example, we could use red and orange tones, adding craters and dust storms. Children can research their planet to find out their special features and decorate them accordingly.
I think the examples shown in the video from Module 1 were wonderful, and it was inspiring to see the children so engaged and excited. I think this activity would be an excellent way for pupils to understand gravity and weight in a hands-on and visual way.
Hi Grainne. This sounds like a very engaging activity. I really appreciate how you have integrated all the SESE subjects. Giving children a role in selecting the location and the materials makes it very meaningful for them and using stones to mark the hours is such a simple and very effective idea.
Hi Sarah, you have some great ideas. I’m sure my students would really enjoy using Skyview and stellarium. Children are naturally fascinated by space and the planets and this activity would be a perfect homework project for them during the autumn or even the winter term.
Module 5 assignment
Choose one of the activities or activity sets outlined in this module – How would you use the activity in your classroom?
I am looking forward to trying out the Rocket activities with the children next year. I think they would really suit the children in 2nd class.
To begin with we would brainstorm the word ‘rocket’ and make a whole class mind map with their contributions on the whiteboard. This will allow me to gauge their current knowledge of rockets.
I will then play the Launch of Vega video from this module as I think it will be very engaging for the children. I will also show them some other videos and images of rockets on the whiteboard.
We can discuss what makes rockets fly. We will spend time designing and creating the rockets. The children will decorate them. They can let their creativity flow for this.
The children will then carry out the rocket mice experiment in groups. The children could experiment with different sizes of cartons and use mice of different weights. I will encourage them to identify what makes the mice rise and what makes them fall. The children can compare and contrast the results.
We will collate the results and I can photograph the process. We will the create a display in the classroom incorporating their rockets, their mind map and the results and the photographs for all of the children to enjoy.
I really think this lesson allows for a lot of cross curricular integration with STEM, Maths, art and oral language.
Fantastic suggestions for Space week there Criona. I love how you introduce the children to the wonders of space through so many cross-curricular activities. Plus they’ll have so much fun engaging in all those activities.
Module 4 assignment
Online resources and tools: How would you use the activity in your classroom?
Stellarium is really cool. I think this would suit the children in 2nd class. I think it’s graphics and engaging space related subject matter will be really appealing to the children. I have downloaded the Stellarium app which will come in very handy to use with the IWB to show the children the night skies and the beautiful star constellations. They can then use the stellarium-web.org browser and the unawe.org website on the chromebooks for individual exploration and stargazing.
ESA Kids is a fantastic resource by the European Space Agency that I will definitely be using with the children next year. They will really enjoy the online games as well as the arts and craft lesson activities. The rocket lesson in particular has excited me and I think the children will really enjoy designing and making their own rockets. I also really like the Solar System Explorer game. https://www.esa.int/kids/en/Games/Solar_System_Explorer
The various Paxi videos and the Milo and Marvin cartoons are fantastic. I will also use the Astronomy Picture of the Day resources during Science week and Space week.
I agree Eleanor. I have learnt about so many great resources here on this course and I’m writing the list down in a separate notebook for reference and to remind that it’s there and readily available.
Stellariun is really cool. I’ve downloaded it now on my laptop so will come in handy to use on the IWB and the kids could use the stellariun web browser on the chromebooks.Module 3 assignment
Activity Set: Space and Aliens
How would you use the activity in your classroom?
I plan to do a lesson about aliens and space, as I think it would be a fun one to do in the infant classroom. I would use the ESERO 19 Special life resource as a guide to the lesson.
I will explain to the children that we live on planet Earth and that there are many more planets in space. I will explain that as far as we know there are no people living on the other planets.
A discussion will occur where I will ask the children if aliens did live on the other planets what would the children like to show them here on Earth? What objects or animals here on Earth are so special that the aliens from other planets should see them or learn about them.
The children will be encouraged to make a range of suggestions and they will then decide what object to draw. I will give each child a sheet of A4 paper and crayons. Each child will draw what he/she has thought of.
The children will then think about how they can best act out their special object on Earth. The children will sit in a circle and each child will take a turn to act out his/her object in the centre of the circle. The rest of the children will then try guess what the object is.
Finally, the children will be invited to think about and visualise the alien. They are asked to think about what it looks like. Has it got any special features and what planet is it from. The children will then draw their alien. Afterwards they can find a partner and they can take turns to describe the alien they have drawn. These drawings can be displayed on the wow wall.
There’s a good link to the arts and literacy curriculums in this lesson and the children will benefit from listening to each other describing their aliens and from acting out their special objects.
I love this stars in a jar activity Donna. It is very effective and also very easy to do with the infants. And I agree with Michelle when she mentions it would be a lovely sensory activity. I’ll definitely be trying it next year.
Module two assignment
I would choose the activity set about the planets and I aim this lesson at 2nd class.
To start the lesson I would get the children to form a circle. I will show the children a picture of the planets. I will pass it around one by one. I will ask the children to describe what they see. The person holding the picture can speak while the rest of the group listens. I will able to gauge their current knowledge by their contributions.
We will then listen to the “The Family of the sun” song about the planets. We can do this a few times as the children can sing along with the lyrics.
We can learn the mnemonic ‘My very educated mother just showed me nine planets’ to help remember the order of the planets from the sun. I’m sure the issue of Pluto not being a planet will come up here.
Assuming there is 27 in my class I will put the children in 3 groups of nine. I will give each child in the group an either a picture of a planet or a label with the name of a planet. I will ask the children to work together to order the planets from nearest to farthest from the sun. I will hold the picture of the sun as a starting point.
Children will be put in groups of 3 to learn about planets and to do a mini project. We can use the ESERO resources for this. We also have access to the Chromebook’s so we can do some research about their planet. Children can print pictures and write facts and stick them to a A3 sheet. All 9 projects can be displayed in the room in their order from the sun.
As an extension activity each group can plan and make papier mache model of their planets. These can be painted and decorated using the knowledge from their research project. These can be hung from the ceiling alongside their planet projects.
Finally we could play a fun kahoot quiz on the planets to reinforce their learning and also to assess learning.
Module One assignment
I would begin with a simple brainstorming lesson to gauge the children’s current knowledge of gravity. Then I will show some of the videos from the module and explaining that gravity is a force that pulls everything down towards the ground. I will then ask the children if they have noticed how things fall to the ground when they drop them. A whole class discussion will take place.
We will then make our own inquiry about gravity. We will decide what objects to use and the equipment that is needed. I can list them on the whiteboard and the children can gather them.
One by one we will make observe the object and make predictions on which objects they think will fall faster or slower. I will record the children’s predictions on the whiteboards.
To perform the experiment I will stand on a chair to get some height. I will hold two different objects at the same height and I will drop both objects at the same time while the children observe from a safe distance which objects hit the ground first. We will record the results on the whiteboard. We continue this with all the objects we gathered.
We will discuss the results at the end. I will ask questions like did all the objects fall at the same speed or different speeds? We will see if their predictions correct or incorrect and discuss this.
Finally we can conclude that gravity pulls objects down towards the earth and that all objects fall at the same rate.
