[Aoife Kelly]

Module 2 assignment:

Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky? For example: Look up President Michael D Higgins’ “Stardust”

I think this was a smart question as everyones searches led us to sharing all our resources. The following are exerpts from the above posts.

Ones that stood out for me when I was younger were poems from Monley-Hopkins and Walt Whitman.

I think songs will denitely appeal to my 3rd and 4th classes, especially from Coldplay.

However I love this about this module in that the Dark Skies are in so many aspects of our lives and that they have affected so much that they are in our thoughts and hopw much of an inspiration the sky is.

I will definitely be studying the piseogs and old stroies from the past using the Dúchas Folklore Commission website as I think preservsing our traditions is so important. This also will tie in with Gaeilge and History so much.

I’m fascinated with archeo-astronomy and how the sky is connected to folklore. I live near Cairns directed related Lú and recently Mayo Coco has marked the Cairns on a new signpost initiative to promote people visiting them. LTT Lost Treasures Trail. From my window here I’m looking at Cairn Eochaí and it has one of the most spectacular views in Connacht, over the Mask and really is unknown. Other Cairns are nearby too and there are wonderful stories about these ancient figures. Lú apparently was named Lú with the long hand, supposedly after a comet. I have a book about it but it could turn into a local project with my students perhaps.

 

 

 

.Night Sky, Moon and Stars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyjzXCCbLY4

2.Sun, Moon and Stars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcUyDAO1Fk0

3.I’m a Star, The Stars Song by StoryBots (Song/Rap): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t3aXb3LpWg

4.A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay – speaks of feeling lost and alone but finding hope and beauty in the vastness of the night sky. The chorus repeats the line, “Cause you’re a sky, you’re a sky full of stars.”

5.The Big Sky by Kate Bush is an atmospheric and dreamy song which speaks of the majesty and the grandeur of the night sky. The lyrics describe the vastness of the universe, and the way stars seem to shimmer and dance in the sky.

6.Midnight Sky by Miley Cyrus is an upbeat catchy song the speaks of feeling lost and alone but finding strength and resilience in the beauty off the night sky. The lyrics repeat the phrase, “I’m gonna keep on dancing in the midnight sky.”

Poems:

1.Twas the Night Before Christmas

2.The Starlit Night by Gerard Manley Hopkins

3Stars I Have Seen them Fall by A.E. Housman

4.Firework Night by Enid Blyton

5.Five Little Rockets Standing in a Row (Rhyme)

6. Won’t it be Fun on Bonfire Night By Unknown Author

Art: Looking and responding:

Van Gogh:      1.  Starry Night    2. Café Terrace at Night

Kandinsky – Moonlit Night

Monet – Seascape

Bonnard – Night Landscape

Elsheimer – The Flight into Egypt

Verschuier – The Great Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam

Some of my choices in songs:
“Sky Full of Stars” – Coldplay
“The Voyage” – Christy Moore
“Dancing in the Moonlight” – Toploader
“Dancing in the Moonlight” – Thin Lizzy
“Fly Me to the Moon” – Frank Sinatra
“Counting Stars” – OneRepublic
” Scaití ” – OneRepublic counting stars as Gaeilge

Some of the Poems I’ve been exposed to which involve the night sky are:
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” – W.B. Yeats
“Stars” – Robert Frost
“To the Evening Star” – William Blake

• “I’m a Star, The Stars Song” by StoryBots
• “Vincent” by Don McLean
• “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra
• “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic
• “Stars” by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
• “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay
• “As With The Night Sky” by Kyle McEvoy and Philip G Anderson (video)
• “The Big Sky” by Kate Bush (video scene where she is shining torch into the night – talking point )
• “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus
• “Northern Sky” by Nick Drake (video)
• “Night Sky” by Faime (video) explore themes of passion, desire, and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world.
• “The Night Sky” by Keane (video)
• “The Night Sky” by Mostly Autumn
• “Same Night Sky” by 2AM Club -an anthem for anyone who has ever felt the ache of missing someone and the hope that comes with knowing that they are still out there, under the same night sky.
• “Airplanes” by B.o.B
• “Look Up at the Stars” by Shawn Mendes

Art – The most famous example that crops up on every search is Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”, housed in New York’s MoMA.
Websites that include Van Gogh and many other nightscapes include:
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/night-sky-paintings/ include:
• Edward Hopper – “Nighthawks”
• Vincent van Gogh – “Starry Night Over the Rhone”
• Adam Elsheimer – “The Flight into Egypt”
• James Whistler – “Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket”
• Tarsila do Amaral – “The Moon”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/the-arts/5-most-beautiful-and-famous-paintings-of-the-night-sky/photostory/109073932.cms include:
• ‘Moonlight’ by Winslow Homer
• ‘Moonlit Shipwreck at Sea’ by Thomas Moran
• ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’ by van Gogh
https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-night-sky-in-art include:
• Nebra sky disc (c.1800–1600 BC, copper & gold, Early Bronze Age Unetice culture)
• A Moonlit Wooded River Landscape by Aert van der Neer

7 Pieces of Art Inspired by the Night Sky

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-made-night-sky-muse include more recent artists, for example:
• Mara de Luca – “Cut Night Sky 1”
https://artfilemagazine.com/artworks/
worth a look at with older classes: https://feastcornwall.org/camelford-night-sky-art-installation/
if money and distance allows: https://media.ireland.com/en-ie/news-releases/global/stars,-stones-and-an-experience-of-the-dark-sky.aspx

Poems/ rhymes –
• “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth
• “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear
• “The Starlit Night” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
• “A Visit from St. Nicholas” By Clement Clarke Moore (‘twas the night before Christmas…)
• “The star” by Jane Taylor (‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’)
• “The Moon” by Robert Louis Stevenson
Technically a rhyming book “Adam’s amazing space adventure” by Benji Bennet is a fabulous resource for lower classes to be inspired by.
The children themselves may enjoy ‘researching’ night sky songs, poems, art by quizzing family members and maybe seeing which is the most popular! (statistics)

[Aoife Kelly]

Module 5:

Prepare a school project to collect Piseógs/Traditions/Stories of the Night. For Example: Dúchas Folklore Commission

I looked at this resource and it was fascinating, particularly the Main Manuscript collection. I think cihldren would love to hear old stories written in such a different style than nowadays, see the old writing itself and listen to the stories.

I think a project on this would link well with Bealoideas in Gaeilge and students would become familiar to traditions and our culture in a fun way.

In my locality a new inititave was begun with signposts to advertise a Lost Treasure Trail marking old Cairns and historical places relatively unknown to most, bar those living bwdide them. One is a Cairn called Cairn Eochaí. I’m looking at it from my window and it has the most spectacular views in the west of Ireland over Lough Mask. A character from folklore linked to it was Lú, who had a long hand…and it comes from a comet apparently. I have a book about it. It’s fascinating history.

Also the night of the big wind would be another excellent story about a storm long ago.

Archaeo-astronomy will definietely interest students and in this module I learned that Ireland was at the forefront of space exploration with the largest telescope being at Birr for 75 years.

Also the Irish women involved in astronomy is something to investigate.

As homework children could ask their families if they have any stories from long ago or even sayings or memories from their youth. Discussions could takeplace about how light affected their travelling around in the dark in their youths compared with today.

 

[Aoife Kelly]

How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.

Module 4 had ample engaging vidoes how to engage students. Children love seeing intersting facts and are facinated by weird and wonderful things. The video about the long eared bats would engage anyone. It had amazing facts.

A survey involving the children themselves going about the school grounds on a dry day would be great. There was great videos about identifying speices and sketching leaves. I myself have a huge interest in botany and would do a quatrant survey perhaps on out new school field that we purchased. It containes more diverse speicies than the pitch for example.

I know our school hosts pine martens because I identified their poo a lot on the grounds. So definitely a walkabout and getting outside looking is that best way to engage.

Regarding nocturnal species, aldi does night vision cameras and I’m sire if a note to the parents went out I bet someone would lend us some to set up for our survey.

I know you can get the Mayo National Park rangers to come out and discuss Biodiversity. This would be worth considering. We did it years ago. It’s time again.

 

[Aoife Kelly]

Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.

This module has so many great activities about light pollution and the curious minds model is very clearly demonstrated with lessons for each of the three sections; engage, explore and investigate.

I think a focus on the students own locality would bring huge awareness of light pollution to the wider community and thus their parents etc through conversations and surveys they would be conducting at home and in the community.

Engage:

The video from Fred the astronomer was a god tool and had a scientific focus especially talking about the telescopes used to view the sky at night. The Esero 09 lesson with the two comparison charts really showed the increase in Ireland and the stats about the costs of lighting would really shock children with such big numbers.

I think the students wold really go 0ut into the community afterwards and just look around at lights here and there and espeically how many are farmers they would be used to huge flood lights in sheds. They would probably be discussing it at home and they would know the difference between a wasted light source and one thats not as bright or blue like the three diagrams of lights that reduce light pollution. Ther was so many lessons suggested as triggers. Personally I sleep with no blinds or curtains and am very into going with my circadian rhythm. I notice that autistic children really adhere to their circadian rhythm.

Exploring:

I loved the lesson making the street scape and putting in adequate lighting. Children could have grat fun making a lego town (simple) and talk about what lights they would put in or even more simply depending on time, do it on a sheet of paper in groups or also I could print out different types of places for each to do a lighting plan. We could use google maps and bring ICT into it so easily using IPads.

Investigate:

Surveys all the way to engage as many people as they can to bring awareness.

Making surveys together or the one from the Irish times.

A school walk around the school grounds and up the village would be great.

Also children could draw their lighting plan at home that is there already. I’d be mindful so that their home lighting plan doesn’t get criticised too much in class though.

We could talk about the Dark Sky sites.

I would love to use the Sky Quality Meter and I’m thinking of asking the school to buy one and send it home with every student to record their night sky readings and do up a graph and see where we are on the scale and how close or far away are we to the criteria as a Dark Sky Site.

 

 

[Aoife Kelly]

Constructing a Sun Dial:

I think this stood out the most in Module 1. Some children may have seen one before. We live an hour from Coole Park and they have a gorgeous one and I have seen this some years ago.

But it’s such a good lesson for a cross-curricular approach. You can involve art/science/geography/maths/ language/ history here.

I think I would tackle the two types I saw here, the make and do one outside with the pot and stick and chalk. There is ample room in our yard. It would also allow kids to interact with other classes on yard as our yards rotate daily. But also on a rainy winters day we could make the small cardboard one inside and test it when we can, Students here would make this by following instructions and it has quite a mathematical and language heavy content so a challenge for my age group. Collaboration would occur naturally but I will aim for everyone to have one each.

Id also do a search online for place that have them in Ireland so the students could visit perhaps at a weekend and teach their parents etc.

 

 

[Aoife Kelly]

Using the World Wide Telescope and Stellaruim  ( both Web format)as resources in the classroom:

What excellent tools and excellent too as part of the Digital Learning Framework.

I would as part of a 4 week block of studying space as a classroom theme teach my students about the Dark Skies, do the lovely art activities of making comstellation with the tinfoil and wool; making the planetarioums with the box; studying the moon phases using the Paxi videos; making the simpler Star Wheels and also at the end when sufficient knowledge is taught I would do an hour using my whiteboard first then handing out Ipds in small groups to allow children to explore these two websites themselves.

In paticular though the focus of a lesson would be to look at the Earth at night on the one of the cool tours on the WWT. This would encourage students to wonder why some places are brighter, disucss why and further explore the topics of energy usage, first world versus third world, simple geography about deserts/rainforests and also learning about the actual world itself in 3d form and being able to identify continents and countries. When I looking at this it was just so cool.

Then when the children explore online themselves on the I would encourage them to watch other tours and look at the pictures especially of the galaxies on the WWT.

Module 2 had sooooo many lesson ideas. It was excellent and definitely would engage all learners.

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