Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I love the idea of an after dark field trip, not sure I’d be brave enough to organise one though! Maybe it could be done in conjunction with a local astronomy group or as part of Space Week with parents involved? I know that most of the children in my class live in estates and have little or no experience of dark skies as street lighting is always on. I live in the countryside and when my kids have friends over, especially in winter when it gets darker early, they can find our driveway a bit scary as it is really dark!
When I was growing up our home had a view of Cork Airport and it stood out as being the only bright lights around at night. Now the airport is surrounded by a business park and when I visit home at night the light from the entire airport complex is considerably larger.
Where I live now is still in a rural area about 15 km outside of Cork City. There is quite a bit of one-off housing and because it is in a rural area people like to have lights in their driveways as there is no public lighting. We use solar lights that are down-lit and are on a sensor so they only come on when needed but most homes near us have constant lighting at night and much of it is blue-toned. It can look lovely but it does come at a cost as described in this module, impacting wildlife, our skies and even our own circadian rhythm.
Using the Stellarium World Telescope resource
I would use Space Week as an opportunity to work on space related projects using Stellarium. I would use the ESERO What can you see? Looking at constellations resource https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/34_What-can-you-see.pdf to introduce the children to the concept of constellations. Then I would model how to use Stellarium, posting details on the home-school communication App so parents can also see how to use it. In small groups the children would be given a constellation to research and create a drawing/model of. They would also be set a challenge to find their constellation at night as part of their homework and invited to take a photo and share with the class. A guide on what constellations are visible at different times of the year can be seen at https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/constellations The children would be able to present their projects to the whole-class and engage in a Q&A.
I love your plan of work Amy and the idea of one child each day having the job to fill in the log is really engaging the class would love it.
After discussing planets and the concept of weight using resources from ESERO and the Ogden Trust the children will work in small groups to research about their planet and complete the tubes. After the tubes are made each group will present to the class and they will all get an opportunity to lift the various tubes and compare how heavy/light they feel.
Resources needed:
One full 200g crisp tube
Seven empty crisp tubes (of the same size)
Sand or rice
Scales (for measuring in grams)
Materials to decorate the tubes to look like planets e.g. paint, paper, glue.Method:
1. Label the full, unopened can of crisps ‘Earth’.
2. Fill each of the other empty tubes with the mass of sand/rice indicated in the table on https://www.ogdentrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Phizzi-practical_planetary_picnic.pdf
3. Seal their lids securely using the tape and label each tube with the name of the planet it represents.
4. Decorate each tube to indicate the planet it represents
5. Depending on the age of the children they could add interesting facts about the planet to the tube. Children can then lift the tubes to feel how heavy a tube of crisps would feel on different planets; they can compare the planets and think about how heavy they would feel on different planets too.
