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Hi Niall,
You thought of so many different types of art connected to the night sky. Some of these I am family with but some I will have to look into!
Aoife
Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own
Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?After looking at the ‘Dark Sky Place’ lesson plan, I can only really see our school area as the biggest open place where the children could design a darksky park/site and so I think it would be best to focus on our school area for that lesson activity.
Following on from a lesson on light pollution and how it impacts human health/nocturnal wildlife, I would do a walk around our school environment with my class (just like I mentioned in the previous module’s assignment). We would complete an audit of the light sources already in use in our school and see if they are dark sky friendly lights. We could plan ways that we could change/fix our current lighting so that it is in line with the principles of responsible lighting. I would then divide the class into groups and challenge them to redesign the schools outdoor lighting or coming up with a way to create a mini dark sky friendly area in our quad area, Once we have a solid plan in place, we would present out ideas to the principal and hopefully with their agreement we could get work underway for our very own ‘Dark SKy Place’ while also conserving energy as part of our Green School initiatives.Hi Anna,
I like your idea of installing sensor lights. It is an easy compromise as the lights can still be active if needed for security purposes but the animals can benefit from the darkness when they are not needed.
Aoife
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially
those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans.I think the first thing we would do is as a class walk around our school and see what areas might be adding to light pollution in our school. As we are a city school our general area suffers from light pollution but we are fortunate to have lots of little alcoves for nature around our school site. We will make a log of all the lights around the building and interview the principal and caretaker about which lights are left on and the possibility of reducing this number, especially in our central quad area where we have some raised beds for planting.
The back of our school has lots of trees and it might be a nice project to build some bat and bird boxes to encourage these creatures to nest around our area. In previous years, our senior classes did workshops with a local secondary school to build bug hotels so there is a link there that can be revisited and the possibility of birdhouses/batboxes discussed as the next project.Hi Dympna,
I love how you are integrating all your subjects to create this enjoyable STEAM lesson. Such a creative way to learn about light.
Aoife
1. Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I accidentally taught a short lesson on this last year when the Northern Lights were making a great display over the country. The Northern Lights were a popular topic. They were in the news. They were plastered across social media. Everyone was talking about them and most people were disappointed that they could really only see them through their phone.
On one particular night when the flare was particularly strong, I could clearly see from my house in the countryside, far from city light pollution, that there was something going on in the sky and when I took out my phone, I could see a wonderful display of colours. On one side of the house it seemed brighter than the other. Like everyone else I took a photo to remember the sight. Not thinking that the next day my students would be eager to see it.
I commute to an inner city Dublin school and all of my students were very sad to report that they had not seen the Northern Lights. The first thing they said the morning after the natural phenomenon was that it was ‘fake’. It wasn’t ‘real’. They stayed up and ‘couldn’t see anything’. They were so surprised that I had a completely different experience and this began our lesson on light pollution. It was this personal connection and the children’s desire to learn that guided our learning. We compared their local area to my local area, one of which is suffering from lots of light pollution.Hi Laura,
This is such a fun, simple lesson that I am sure the children would gain a lot from.
There would be the possibility for a lovely display that I am sure would promote lots of discussion amongst other students too.
Aoife
3. Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be?
The phase of the moon that would be best to observe at school in the morning would be ‘The Third Quarter (or the Last Quarter) Moon. This would be best as it rises around midnight, reaches its peak high in the southern sky at dawn, and remains visible on a clear morning high in the sky. This would suit our 8:50 start and so we could drop our bags off in the room, keep our coats on and pop out to view and discuss the moon.
I always associate the moon and art related to the moon with the winter months and so I think a lesson on the moon would fit in nicely after Halloween. A quick Google search says that the first week in November would be the best time to see this particular phase of the moon and it would be good to draw the children’s attention to the moon being in the sky during the daytime as they often think it disappears once the sun comes up.
It might be a nice activity to complete a moon log during the month too.Hi Catherine, I like the structure of your lesson and think it could be nicely extended into recording the positions of the sun as it rises and sets throughout the day.
Aoife
Q3. Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
In terms of this lesson, we are fortunate to have two large circles printed on our yard. Many years ago they were used for yard games but most of the writing and images have faded except for the circular outline. To teach about the positions of the sun we could use these circles as sundials. Placing a stick on a cone in the centre will create a shadow. To begin we will have to mark the very tip of the shadow that the stick is making. At different points during the day we could go out and mark where the shadow is. Discussing how it has moved. It might be worth marking it in different coloured chalk and writing the time beside the new line. As the day goes on, it will be quite obvious that the sun is moving around. With older classes we could even keep a record of the different angles the sun is making to the stick.