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A fabulous lesson on old stories and traditions – lovely ideas that can be easily implemented in the classroom.
Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?
- I would start with a lesson on what light pollution is and why dark skies matter. I would use before-and-after photos of light-polluted and also protected skies.
- I would then conduct an assessment on the lighting in your school and surrounding area considering whether the lights are shield?; too bright?; pointing upwards?; on when they don’t need to be?
- Together we would then choose a place they want to turn into a dark sky-friendly area, such as a part of the schoolyard or park nearby
- In groups, pupils will then create proposals to reduce light pollution at the chosen area:
- Install shielded lights.
Use warm-coloured bulbs.
Add timers or motion sensors.
Plant trees to block unwanted light.
Include educational signage about dark skies.
We would then consider contacting local stakeholders to organise a meeting to share our project ideas. - Depending on resources we could look at installing improved lighting (perhaps start with one fixture at school). We could organise a “Dark Sky Night” event where lights are turned off for stargazing.
- Being from Mayo myself I would potentially organise an over-night trip to Ballycroy National Park to see the western Dark Skies in real life.
I love the idea of the bat boxes – I love that the pupils could design them using shoe boxes. I’d love to get a camera set up for night time to see what animals may be around our school at night time. We often see rabbits during the day and I know the pupils would love to see if any animals are around at night time.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity?I would start with a short video (e.g., from National Geographic or WWF Kids) to introduce biodiversity. I would give each small group a white board and asking them to record their answers to the following questions:
- What animals or plants do you see every day?
- What would happen if they disappeared?
I would then bring the pupils outside and engage them in a Biodiversity Scavenger Hunt by giving them a list of things to find:
- Insects
- Birds
- Different leaves
- Animal tracks
- Flowering plants
We are actually in the middle of creating a sensory garden at the minute so I would ask the pupils to plan the garden to encorporate biodiversity into it. They could also build their own ecosystems using a shoebox for a diorama ensuring they include animals, plants, weather, threats (e.g., pollution). Each group must then perform their plan to the class.
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
Artificial light emissions are 7 times higher in Dublin compared to the rest of Ireland. This isn’t just a visual issue—satellite imagery shows that light from Dublin extends over 45 km into areas like the Wicklow Mountains, affecting even designated heritage sites. Public lighting in Ireland consumes around 205 GWh annually, costing about €29 million and emitting 110,000 t CO₂. In Dublin, an estimated 20–30% of this energy is wasted due to inefficient design and over-illumination—equivalent to 2.2 GWh each year, roughly €300,000 in wasted electricity. The city’s bright skyglow severely hampers star visibility, even from suburban observatories like Dunsink Observatory, which is one of the only relatively dark spots in Dublin. This affects amateur and professional astronomy, cultural heritage, and our collective ability to view the night sky. Urban light disrupts nocturnal animals, altering feeding, breeding, and migration. Migratory birds suffer from disorientation and collision risks, and aquatic ecosystems far from direct light sources experience skyglow effects.
There is a very good David Attenborough documentary about sea turtles and when they are born, they emerge from the sand where their nest was and they are supposed to be drawn to the sea by the light of the moon but they are drawn to the street lights instead where prey are waiting and kill them. I would use this video as a stimulus to bring the pupils attention to one impact light pollution has on our lives. I would then go through the different categories of light pollution as mentioned above and then assign smaller groups a category to carry out a project on.
Really lovely ideas there Olive – I have 5th class next year so I will definitely be taking your suggested activities on board. I like the review of the light usage in their own home as well as the mind mapping activity at the beginning.
Lovely ideas here Nicole.
I haven’t ever used Stellarium and I look forward to trying it out with my class in September.
I chose one of the activities from the Space themed framework for Inquiry, specifically ‘How to make a foam rocket?’.
- Each pupil or pair of pupils need:
Foam pipe insulation (½ inch diameter, cut into 8-inch lengths)
Duct tape or masking tape
Scissors
Construction paper or cardstock (for fins)
Rubber bands (large, for launchers)
Plastic straws (wide diameter, optional)
Markers or stickers (for decorating)
Rulers
- I would begin by showing a short 1–2 minute video or demo of a foam rocket launch, asking the pupils “What makes it fly?” and “How could we make it go farther?”
- Give each pupil an 8-inch piece of foam pipe insulation and ask them to seal one end with duct tape (this is the nose of the rocket).
- To make the fins, cut 3–4 triangular fins from cardstock. Attach to the bottom (open) end of the foam with tape and encourage symmetry for better flight.
- For the launcher (rubber band slingshot), cut a small slit near the bottom of the rocket and thread a rubber band through and tape it securely.
- To launch, hook the rubber band on your thumb and pull back on the rocket!
- Allow pupils time to decorate the launcher with colours, names, and designs.
- Before launching the rocket, create a clear launch zone.
- Use a measuring tape to record distances and try different launch angles. Ask pupils to record and compare results.
- Allow pupils time to tweak fin shapes, add weight to the nose, or adjust length.
Retest and see what improves! - Conclude the lesson by asking the pupils:
- What changes made your rocket fly further?
- What challenges did you face?
- What would you try next time?
This is a lovely approach – I will definitely try this next year. I have 5th class so it would work with that age group too. Also a nice way to engage the pupils early on whilst also embedding some recycyling approaches into our setting from an early stage.
3. Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
Firstly we will choose several times to observe the Sun daily (e.g., 09:30 AM, 12 PM, 2:45 PM) specific to our school day.
At each time we will mark the direction of the Sun using our compass and estimate its height (altitude) in the sky. I’ve looked into this and people advise using your fist. By using your fist at arm’s length, one fist = approx. 10° of altitude.
We will also note shadows: Observe the direction and length of shadows from a fixed object like a stick or building. From my classroom we can see a shed at the end of the yard so we will use this. We will then record the date, time, direction, altitude estimate, and shadow information/descriptions.By doing this regularly (even weekly) across seasons we will begin to understand how the Sun’s path changes with the seasons. We can observe how days get longer or shorter and also see how solar noon (highest point) shifts slightly.
Really interesting piece about John Tyndall. I must remember him when looking at magnets and magnetism. Thanks Mark.
Describe how you would involve your pupils in an art, music drama or creative writing project based around your local natural or scientific heritage.
Our school is lucky to be based near Intel Leixlip where they create silicon microprocessors, such as those found in computers and smartphones, which are responsible for executing instructions and performing calculations .
I would try to organise a class trip to Intel to see a tour of the campus and explore how microprocessors are made.
On return I would give my class the choice of either creating a procedural writing piece on how microprocessors are made or explanation writing on the many benefits of microprocessors in society today.
Research engineering in your local area and describe how you would use a local building, structure or other engineering feature as inspiration for a classroom or outdoor design and make project.
I would like to link up with Intel Engineers in our local area and ask them to come into my classroom to introduce engineering to my class. I would ask them to help guide us in the right path towards creating a mini zipline in my classroom using twine, lolliopop sticks, a paper clip, paper tape to see what contributing factors affect the zipline such as weight, amount of tape used, degree of angle and length of the twine.
