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Hi Aaron. I love the way you plan to integrate your ‘Dark Sky Place’ project with so many curricular areas. As well as SESE, Visual Art and SPHE, Music could also be brought in by incorporating songs such as ‘Starman’ by Jack Lukeman and the National Children’s Choir. Perhaps Maths could also be brought in by asking questions such as ‘How many tourists would be allowed into the park at any one time?’ or ‘Would you charge for tickets to enter and if so how much would you charge per ticket?’
If I was to implement a version of ‘Design your own Dark Sky place’ in my classroom, I would base it on the local area (Donegal). We are lucky to be based in a rural part of the country where the sky isn’t heavily impacted by light pollution, but there are still areas where lights are too bright or there’s too many of them – the impact on biodiversity can be seen with, for example, moths and insects being attracted to the lights at night time. The children would be made aware of these issues by showing them short video clips on the interactive whiteboard and engaging them in whole-class discussion. The children would then be put into groups of four and each assigned different stakeholder roles for the design of their Dark Sky place. They would be given iPads to research and explore the Dark Sky places in Ireland to gain an understanding of what these places are like and provided with a guide of questions to consider as they come up with their design. They could make a digital poster or map using software like Canva to promote their Dark Sky place to the public, or develop a powerpoint presentation on Google Slides and present their work to the class.
Hi Brian. I love the idea of doing a school grounds safari and giving pupils ID charts to take around with them to identify birds, trees and insects. The mini-beast hunt also sounds like such a fun way to explore biodiversity, as is your idea of habitat mapping where the pupils draw maps of the school and mark habitats such as hedges, grass, trees, walls, ponds. Also love the idea of writing diary entries from the perspective of a nocturnal animal and engaging the children in classroom debates about biodiversity issues!
I would engage learners to explore biodiversity in the local area in a number of ways. Firstly I would make the children aware of the impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity by showing them some short videos and engaging them in whole-class discussion. I would then hand out iPads and share some links/articles about the impacts of light pollution for the children to research and take notes from, after which they would share their learning with the class. This would be a great way for the children to engage in peer learning. We would then go on a walk around the school grounds to do some field work – the children would take notes and draw pictures of any plants, insects etc that they see and use their notes to identify the different species upon return to class. This could then lead to a discussion about different ways that we could promote biodiversity in the school and to come up with new initiatives.
Hi Grace. It can be quite disheartening seeing the light pollution in built-up towns and urban areas, and seeing the impact that it has on wildlife in the area. Bright LED lights on cars seem to be one of the latest problems – you would imagine that there are more environmentally friendly options for warmer white lights that would also be safer for oncoming traffic. You mentioned a very good point in referencing ‘light that we waste’ – it is very important for children to learn that fossil fuels are burning CO2 in the production of all this light pollution. I also love your idea of making a map with your class of the different light sources in the area and discussing which ones are useful.
Light pollution impacts our local area and school in a number of ways, and even though the school is located in a rural area, there are still many things that the children can do to combat light pollution. I teach fifth class and it’s important for children at this age to be made aware of the light that is emitted from phones, particularly with regards the impact that the blue light can have on sleep patterns as this can greatly impact concentration levels in school. I would engage the children in pair/groupwork followed by whole-class discussion to come up with other ways that we can minimise light pollution in our daily lives, e.g. switching lights off when leaving the classroom, encouraging their families to use warm-white LED light bulbs rather than brighter blue lights at home, switching off lights not in use, etc. I would get the children to do a lighting survey in the school to see how many lights (and what type of lights, colours, fittings, etc.) are located around the school, including the exterior. Perhaps a poster campaign could be done to raise awareness of ways that we can reduce our impact on light pollution. By using resources like Stellarium Web and Worldwide Telescope to inspire children to become more in-tune with nature and the night sky, they will hopefully become motivated to reduce their impact on light pollution.
Hi Brid. It’s fantastic that your school has been used a host venue for night sky exploration – I think children in rural areas in particular are so lucky to have clear skies to explore at night without much pollution in the sky. It sounds like a brilliant idea to get the children to track the movement of constellations through Stellarium – this seems like a fantastic resource for children to explore the sky. Great idea to get the children to draw constellations they see on Stellarium and to write some facts about them before presenting to the class.
One of the activities from this lesson that I would like to try in the coming school year is the 3D constellation model. It is a very active lesson that I think would greatly facilitate the development of children’s STEM skills through a discovery-based approach. Firstly I would start the lesson with a prompt (maybe a video explaining the origin of the different star constellations) before allowing the children to explore some of these constellations through Stellarium Web on their iPads. Once the children have had time to look at these, they would be assigned groups and each group would choose a constellation that they want to work with. Using the resources provided, the children would firstly draw their constellation onto a piece of card before copying the pattern onto a sheet of tin foil by punching holes through it (e.g. with a compass). By covering a shoe box with their tin foil and by having a torch inside their box, they would then be able to shine their constellation onto the ceiling (with classroom lights off and blinds down). Each group would then try to guess the other group’s constellations.
Hi Eimear. I love your idea of getting the children to use a science journal. This could be used for any investigations and experiments that they do throughout the year, and could be used for making predictions, recording data, etc. I also love how you have integrated Science, Maths and English all into one lesson, and the idea of getting the children to record the times of sunrise and sunset – this could be done over a period of time so that the children see the patterns in the days getting longer/shorter throughout the year.
I would love to engage an older class with the ‘One Year on Earth – Understanding the Seasons’ resource from ESA. I would start by eliciting the children’s prior knowledge on the topic and devising a whole-class KWL chart. I’d then show the children a short video explaining why the seasons change throughout the year, before engaging the children in whole-class discussion on the topic. The children would then be put into groups of four and tasked with developing a sun-earth model (following the instructions in the ESA resource). Each child in the group would be assigned a particular role, and the teacher would circulate to make sure everyone understands what they’re doing. Once the children have completed the task, the children would report back to the class what they learned and complete the attached lesson worksheet. Perhaps the earth-sun models could be decorated/painted and put on display in the classroom.
Hi Aoife. I love your research question idea investigating plastic waste in our local environment. It is such a big issue and one that is easy for children to see first hand in their daily lives. This is a particularly good concept to explore for younger age groups who would struggle to understand some of the more complex problems associated with climate change. I really like how you focus on relating the problem to the children’s’ own lives, and the idea of the children keeping a ‘Plastic Diary’ – this is a great way for children to develop their STEM skills by investigating and analysing how much plastic they are using at home and how much plastic is found in the form of litter. It would be very interesting to compare the results from different children.
My research question would be: ‘To what extent has Ireland contributed to the climate crisis through deforestation?’ First of all I would make sure to have introduced the topic of climate change to the pupils by doing a KWL chart, showing them some relevant videos, and engaging them in whole-class discussion. I would then put them into groups and get them researching some articles and videos on their iPads to learn about the concept of deforestation. This could be done by creating a Padlet with a variety of resources for them to investigate. They would then either write or type a summary of what they learned, before sharing their new-found knowledge with the class. I would then get the children to use their investigative skills to research websites such as ‘global forest watch’ in order to quantify tree loss cover in Ireland by county over the last 25 years. Perhaps local experts could be invited in to speak to the class and the children could have prepared interview questions in advance to ask the guest speaker. The children could also be brought to a local park to take photos of different tree species, and to see first hand the impact that trees have on the biodiversity in an area. The children could come up with some ideas as to how we can combat the problem of deforestation, for example by planting more trees in our school and local area, creating posters to display in the local town, etc.
Hi Aoife. I agree that the EO browser is a great way for children to explore environmental changes over time. It is such an easy-to-use tool with huge learning potential. It appeals to kinaesthetic, tactile and visual learners and provides an interactive and fun way for children to explore topics such as climate change. It can sometimes be difficult for children to see changes in coastlines from erosion, land-use changes etc as they are slow processes, but by comparing current imagery to historical records it makes it much easier to see these changes. It can be particularly interesting for children to explore changes in their local area.
I used the ‘Heavens Above’ satellite tracker where I could see a live map of various satellites orbiting Earth. Five satellites that have passed Ireland recently are: Starlink-2190(48564), Starlink-34367(64452), Starlink-3299(50831), Starlink-4030(52698) and Starlink-32383(61891). Starlink is a satellite network developed by SpaceX that provides low-cost internet to remote locations. There are nearly 8,000 of these satellites currently in orbit. Satellite trackers are a great way for children to see in real time how satellites move over our planet and how they work. In so doing, children will be using their investigative, communication and higher-order thinking skills to research, analyse and observe how satellites help us in our day-to-day lives. They will learn how satellites help us to track changes in the Earth’s landscape over time (e.g. deforestation, sea level rises, atmospheric gases), to enable technologies like GPS, and to help us communicate with our friends and family in other parts of the world.
‘Home’ brilliantly portrays the beauty of our planet. By combining striking imagery along with effective music and narration, we are shown many different amazing landscapes. This documentary would appeal really well to visual and auditory learners, and would act as a great stimulus for sparking whole-class discussion on various topics such as deforestation, carbon emissions, extreme weather etc. The children would learn of the fragile relationship that humans have with nature, and of the destruction that we have been causing to our ecosystem. I would love to show clips of this documentary along with the video of Greta Thunberg at COP25 to a senior class as a way of getting children to think about the effects that we all have on our planet. I would get them to work out their carbon footprints using the link provided in this module, and to work in groups to come up with some practical solutions for reducing our individual impact on the planet. The children might do projects in the form of making digital posters (e.g. on Canva), creating digital stories on Book Creator, or by creating narrated stop-motion videos.