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Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. by Dr. Maeve Liston was an interesting read. I try to promote STEM in the classroom by using a range of strategies to help pupils understand and apply concepts in order to solve problems.
‘Is it weather or climate?’ is a good resource and is very well laid-out and I really think that there is a lot of learning in the extension activity. I would like to use some ideas from this resource with the younger classes. I love the idea of using the children’s birthday months as a hook. In my own experience, I have found that children, especially younger children, love referencing their birthdays. Young children understand the concept of weather and they understand that it is ever-changing. The concept of climate might be more difficult for some children to grasp easily.
The ‘Weather Detectives’ activity is a great way to introduce children in how to use/read a thermometer. Recording at the same time each day and with cross-curricular links to maths brings maths to life with an interesting relevant study.A weather station would be a very welcome addition to the school yard and would provide opportunities for children to pass on their learning to the younger children as they enquire about the models. We have a quiet zone on our yard where there are no balls allowed so I think this would be the ideal space for a weather station as it would be out of harms way.
I love this idea of the children learning from each other, therfore reinforcing their own learning by demonstrating and explaining to other children. A weather station would definitely be an excellent addition to any school yard.
Some rhymes for younger children, connected to the night sky, include:
Twinkle, twinkle;
Star light, star bright;
The evening is coming;
Hey Diddle, Diddle.Some popular songs, which the students may already know and connected to the night sky, include:
“A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay;
“Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra;
“Constellations” by Jack Johnson.Some poems, connected to the night sky, include:
“Stars” by Sara Teasdale;
“Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats;
“Stars” by Marjorie Pickthall;
“When I See the Stars in the Night Sky” by Joy Priest;
“The Stars and the Moon” by Grace Schulman;
“The Moon and the Stars” by Frances Lennon;
“The Freedom of the Moon” by Robert Frost;
“The Moon and the Yew Tree” by Sylvia Plath;
“Wind and Silver” by Amy Lowell;
“Evening Star” by Edgar Allan Poe.Some famous artwork, connected to the night sky, includes:
“The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh (1889);
“The Sleeping Gypsy” by Henri Rousseau (1897);
“Starry Night Over the Rhône” by Vincent van Gogh (1888);
“The Constellations” Series by Joan Miró (1940–1941);
“The Nebra Sky Disk” (c. 1600 BCE).Siobhan, I would have to agree that ‘The Starry Night’ by Van Gogh is an excellent resource to use in art for reference to the night sky. Not only does it inspire teaching for the skills you mentioned but it is a captivating masterpiece and I have seen children create some wonderful work when using it as a reference.
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans?
I would protect nocturnal animals’ needs for dark skies and environments by modifying lighting, and maintaining areas for natural habitats.
Some efforts would include:
Taking an assessment of all of the lights on the school premises that contribute to lighting the night sky or have glare access to animals’ natural habitats.
Ensuring that all lights are fully shielded and point downwards.
Replace blue lights with warmer-toned lights. Instead of constant lighting throughout the night, install motion sensors.
Preserving or creating unlit corridors to safely allow animals such as hedgehogs and foxes to move through the area.
Planting flowers to support nocturnal pollinators, thereby supporting local bat populations. Flowers that are ideal for this include honeysuckle and evening primrose.
Join the Green Schools initiative, teaching children about local species and how to preserve animals’ natural habitats.
These are some great ideas and I like how you plan to implement a course of action around school lighting. The children will feel like they are making a positive impact that directly affects biodiversity.
The new moons for the rest of the year will begin on:
11th September 2026
10th October 2026
9th November 2026
9th December 2026.If I was observing the moon during the school day with the children, I would plan to observe the third quarter moon or the waning crescent moon. This occurs during the third quarter of the lunar cycle, three quarters of the way through the moon’s orbit. The moon, in the third quarter, rises approximately at midnight and sets before midday. The waning crescent moon rises in the early morning and is visible until the late afternoon.
The dates for the third quarter and waning crescent moon for the following school year are:
Oct 10–18, Nov 9–17, Dec 8–16.
Jan 6–15, Feb 5–14
Mar 6–15, Apr 5–14.
May 4–13, June 3–11.During one of these schedules, I would take the children outside to observe and draw the moon at the same time every day and discuss our observations daily and our overall findings at the end of the third quarter schedule.
These are all great ideas. I love the optional homework plan and I think it’s lovely to be able to involve a family member, opening up an opportunity for the student to share what they have been learning about in school.
I love the idea of comparing the rural and urban settings and it’s great that you have the opportunity to do this with the demographic of your pupils and the location of your school.
As artificial light affects humans’ circadian rhythm, it can also affect animals’ as they are exposed to artificial light from homes, streetlights and security lights etc. and this can affect their breeding and migration. It can confuse insects that pollinate plants.The beautiful natural night sky is less visible destroying opportunities for stargazing and observation of the night sky. Human sleep cycles are affected due to disruption of melatonin production so it can directly affect people’s health as reduced melatonin levels have been linked to cancer.
Young learners could explore this by being introduced to the nocturnal world through literacy and storytelling. By using drama and roleplay, children could recreate some of the difficulties for nocturnal animals, such as finding food because the night sky is too bright.
The children could then go on a hunt around the school yard to look at all of the different sources of outdoor light and they could later classify whether they are good or bad by focusing on whether they are shielded lights that point downwards or unshielded lights that point at the sky.I think that these are great ideas, especially for children living in places with more light pollution. Bringing in the element of family members from different locations really gives the lesson a personal element and it will encourage the children to reach out to those family members living further afield from them.
Hi Anna, I think that these are all great ideas and will stimulate the children, therefore keeping them engaged. You have covered many areas that would be beneficial for the children to learn about.
I like these ideas, the use of questioning, and I think it is good that you have brought an element of ICT into your lesson.
Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
1. Pre-teach the four cardinal directions. Use a mnemonic such as, ‘Naughty Elephants Squirt Water’ to help the pupils to remember these.
2. The teacher will distribute a clipboard and a diagram of the layout of the schoolyard displaying the key landmarks in the direction that they will be observing the sun. Remind children not to look directly at the sun.
3. During the first lesson of the day, arrange to bring the children outside and ask them which direction the sun has risen from and observing where it is lying now. The children will plot this position on their schoolyard diagram. They will also work in pairs to draw their partner’s shadow on the ground using chalk, whilst the other partner stands still. They will use their footsteps to measure the shadows.
4. They will complete these tasks, once in the morning, at midday and at the end of the school day, using a different colour chalk each time for the shadows.
5.At the end of the day the class will discuss the movement and direction of the sun’s movement and make some predictions for its movement for the rest of the day. They will discuss the length of their shadows and if this changed at different times throughout the day. What could have caused this?