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There has been an abundance of music, poetry and art inspired by the night sky. Some that come to mind are:
Harvest Moon- Neil Young
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
Counting Stars- One Republic
Fly me to the Moon- Frank Sinatra
Super massive black hole- muse
Harvest Moon- Neil YoungTwinkle twinkle
Star Light, Star BrightPoetry: Stardust by Micheal. D. Higgins
Paintings: The Starry Night- Van Gough
Nocturne in black and white- WhistlerMany children’s books were also inspired by the night sky:
Laura’s Star
How to Catch a Star
I love you to the Moon and BackPeople’s musings, study of, and enjoyment of the night sky has in turn led to the creation of many beautiful works for others to enjoy and study.
Some lovely examples there of songs. I have so many flooding through my brain but I forgot Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I will have to include it in my list below.
Wow Louise, some great ideas there to use in the infant classes. I love the idea of them being light detectives and using the sticker system to alert people to lights. It is important to embed energy conservation and a respect for nature and biodiversity at a young age.
To incorporate the needs of night species into our school’s biodiversity plan I would first use the many articles linked and video clips to teach the children about the importance of our bats, moths, owls, hedgehogs and foxes. Once awareness has been raised, I would then ask the children to create a list of all the potentially harmful issues which need to be addressed- light pollution, lack of local pollinators etc.
Then I would ask them to put forward some suggestions as to improvements we can make for our nocturnal friends. We will then create an action plan, assigning jobs and tasks and seek help from adults within the school community and the wider community- and possibly the heritage in schools team.
I would suggest we buy and sow native wildflower seeds. construct and erect bat boxes. Appeal to the people in the neighborhood to help reduce light pollution, through a targeted campaign of posters to help educate them on the harm of light pollution.
Then we can review plans annually, maybe involve nearby residents to make note of any nocturnal species present and see if we can do more specifically for those which were not recorded.
There is a great opportunity to get home/ school links on the go here, especially seen as we are talking about what can only be observed after school hours. It struck me just now that we could really make a community effort and become active citizens on world Earth Day by turning off all the lights at home and get families to record their observations within their community.
How light pollution is impacting on the local area and how you would engage your pupils to explore this.
Clear starry skies are one of the things I miss now that I’m living in an urban setting. I grew up in a rural setting and still love to catch a glance at the milky way when I return to visit and the conditions are right. The light emitted by street lights, houses, local historical buildings and commercial premises means that when I look out at night I see that skyglow at night. It means that the milky way is rarely seen and the constellations we are teaching the children about are a more of an ‘abstract’ idea than you would hope.
I would like to create a partnership with a rural school and have both classes make a record of the night sky over a period of time, noting weather, lunar phase and what they can observe from their window/ garden to see what is visible with/ without the presence of light pollution. The children could share photographs taken within the same timeframe and compare.
They could also do a survey on family member’s reported sleep quality, to see if there is any correlation to light pollution and disrupted sleep.
Using the Framework for Inquiry I would like to do a year long study of the constellations using the Framework for Inquiry template with 5th class next year.
I would start with a discussion about their previous knowledge of the solar system. Ask them to name any stars they already know.
Trigger: I would show images of the most famous constellations and ask children if they recognise/ can name any. We would record responses to this as a pre-teaching benchmark.
I would introduce the constellations using the esero 34 resource and discuss the mythology surrounding the constellations:
Then we would begin our inquiry based on the following question:
Does the sky look the same every night throughout the year?
Record children’s initial responses. Tell the children that each month for the school year we will observe the constellations on the same date and at the same time (including a note on the change when daylight savings hours impact on the hour) They will then be invited to make predictions as to what they think they will see over the course of the year.
We would then construct the star wheels and learn how to use them.
Choosing the 8th of each month at 8pm the children will use their star wheels to log what constellation will be visible based on the Northen hemisphere. They will use a journal/ log to make a simple drawing and name what stars they say at that point in time.
Then each month the children will be asked to make their real life observations, take a photograph of the night sky and upload it to their google classroom account. In school we can compare their photos and ask what conditions may impact their observations. opening up conversations about weather, light pollution etc.
At the end of the year, we could reflect on whether our predictions were accurate or not, we could also compare our initial star wheel journal activity with our longer term project and compare and contrast findings.
Hi Laura, I will be moving towards the senior end of the school next year and so it is great to get new book titles which have been tried and tested with classes. I will also be on a mission to get more stem related content books for the classroom library, I will make a note of The Girl Who named Pluto, Thank you for this.
It’s tough when space is limited Ronan, but the idea of using the extension roof is showing a STEM brain right there! Drawing attention to the solar panels will also open up some really interesting conversations about the other uses of the sun in our daily lives.
I would like to create a sundial with my pupils next year. I would start by asking the children where they think they could place it around the school and test out 4 or 5 suggested locations. I think this would be a good learning opportunity, as I know that- just like the lady in the video experienced, there are parts of the schoolyard where the building itself and the trees, and fencing create shadows/ block out the light entirely, 4 or 5 sundials in different sections of the yard would help highlight this issue. I would plan to place it in the middle of our concrete space on the back yard. It is easy to find north and south and there is a large area which is not overshadowed at any point during the day. I think the flower pot and stick, while using stones to mark the hour marks would work perfectly on a good day.
They could make predictions about which spot will be the best for sundial placement. This can be reviewed at the end of our observation period and the children can reflect on where the best spot was and why.
We could also discuss whether the planting pot and stick were suitable for the job, could they suggest any other items that would work as well. Explore various methods of recording the hour marks, stones, chalk, paper strips and explore the pros and cons of each. Really encourage scientific questioning and investigation. Using various ways of recording the results.
Then you could discuss advances in time pieces over the years.
This activity encompasses maths, science, engineering and technology.