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Hi June,
I really like your list, it has a good balance of night sky realated songs and poems. It’s amazing how many there are when you sit down and think of them!
Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?
This lesson is aimed at 5th and 6th class. We would initially look at Starry Night by Van Gogh and discuss it in terms of Dark skies and light Pollution, and then in terms of our local area.
We would then move on to investigating the Dark Sky Reserve in Kerry and discuss why the reserve is located there.
Next, we would move on to finding an area in our vicinity that might be a good choice for a Dark Sky Place. We would discuss areas where the children have been able to see the Aurora Borealis previously in particular. Students would use Google Earth and the light pollution mark to examine the suitability particular areas. Groups of students could select a preferred area and then create a presentation on why their site is most suitable.
Finally, students would be encouraged to maybe visit these areas with family on a suitable night and report back to class.
Really like the idea of a lighting audit also. It gives students a sense of ownership of the school and will increase their sense of citizenship.
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans.
In the past year we have rescued several trapped hedgehogs and seen signs of foxes (dropppings) in our yard. I would introduce biodiversity by discussing these incidents with my 5th and 6th class students. We could then discuss the importance of biodiversity to humans and brainstorm the ways in which we could help. Then we would conduct a biodiversity survey of our school yard, and examine the levels of light pollution occuring from our school at night.
After discussing our results, we would then research how we can help the animals and insects we have found. We could look at creating a hedgehog highway through the school fencing so that hedgehogs can move back into the fields without help. We could also examine building a bug hotel in an appropriate place in the school yard. Finally, we could discuss how to reduce our light pollution levels. My class could then present our plans/actions to the whole school body as an assembly topic for Science week.
Hi Edwin, I think writing to the county council is a great idea also. Encouraging students to act on an issue that they see as important is a great opportunity for them to become active citizens. I will do the same with my class I think.
- Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
With my 5th and 6th class students, I would first introduce the concept of light pollution by watching the Youtube video in this module first and then discussing the topic.
With our tablets, we would then go to the light pollution map and discuss/share how light pollution is affecting how each of us see the sky at night. It would be interesting to draw attention to the effects of living rurally, in an estate or in the town.
On the interactive whiteboard then, we would look at the different sources of light pollution, and identify common ones in our area. For homework I would encourage students to go outside with a family member and see the stars, and the types of light pollution they can note.
In the next lesson, we would examine the dark sky projects in Ireland, and research how this affects biodiversity and ways that light pollution can be reduced in our area/homes. Students can then work together in groups to create a powerpoint presentation and posters raising awareness of light pollution in our area.
A lovely lesson plan, Joyce. I agree that it’s important to give students time to explore on Stellarium at their own pace. The world wide Telescope is a great resource as it is very effective in demonstrating how the planets move in relation to each other etc.
For my 5th/6th class students, I would first read the Irish book ‘Réaltbhuíonta’, which is a class reader we use each year. This short book discusses the history of constellations and gives examples in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres each year.
I would the lead a class discussion on the constellations students have seen previously in the night sky.
We would then open Stellarium on the interactive whiteboard and I will show the students how to set our location, find the moon, planets, Polaris and some constellations.
Each student would then have time to open Stellarium on our tablets and find a checklist of constellations/stars in the night sky.
As a follow up lesson, students would work in pairs to recreate The Plough, using the Curious Minds lesson plan.
Finally, students would be assigned homework of giong out with a family member at night to search for constellations in the real night sky (weather dependent).Hi Niamh,
I really like your idea of taking photos of the sun’s position at set times each day over a period of time. I wonder could they go a step further after creating the table, by uploading the photos in order to iMovie or something similar and create a ‘video’ of the sun’s movement across the sky each day?
Q2: Plan to Construct a sun dial on school grounds.
I would use the framework of enquiry to help students identify an appropriate place for a sundial in school. I would engage students by exploring examples of sundials in history and discussing their purpose and design.
I would then provide students with a collection of basic materials needed to create a sundial. Their task would be two-fold: create a sundial from the materials and to choose a practical place for the sundial to be set up in the school yard. A discussion of where the sundial would be most accurate will take place.
Students (in groups) would then create their sundial in their desired spots. On the hour each hour, students will place another stone marking the time.On day two, students will attempt to tell the time using the sundial. Finally, each group will reflect on their design choices and sundial placement. A class discussion would then take place on both topics, to share what they have learned and reflect on what they would change in the future.