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Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I noticed recently how bright the sky is even in the middle of the night. I was driving to cork airport at 3 am and i was thinking about how it should be pitch dark but there was a glow in the sky as if the sun was rising. To be totally honest i was completely unaware of Light pollution. I didn’t realise it was a thing. I am fortunate enough to live out the country so it isn’t too bad where i live but i do work in the town where i grew up and i can now see how important it is to address the situation. The pupils i work with come from all over Kerry so they would all have a different experience of the night sky and i would love to look into this with them and address the topic as a class.
I would begin by showing videos of light pollution to draw their attention to the subject. For example the Losing the dak Video’. We would look at the light pollution map and see which areas are the most lit up and which areas are the darkest. https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/
We would look at different types of lighting and the evolution of lighting over the centuries. There is great scope for many different lessons here.
We would use the space week lesson on light pollution to see where light is needed and where it isn’t. We would look at the satellite images to see the wasted light and energy.
Following on from this we would look at the impacts it has on humans, animals as insects.I think the children would find this topic so interesting. i love the idea of picking one particular constellation to focus on to begin with. stellarium is a fantastic resource one i know the pupils would like to explore further themselves during Tablet time.
Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be in 2024- 2025?
I would engage the pupils with the topic of observing the moon by showing them the paxi video to begin with. We wolud rewatch it and stop it at various points to discuss the different phases of the moon mentioned in the video.
We would use junk art materials to make the moon at different phases of the cycle and put them in order. During tablet time i would get the children to read the following webpage: The phases of the moon | National Geographic Kids (natgeokids.com). I would prepare a few questions for them to look up and I would ask each child 1 new thing they learned and if they had any new questions that would lead another lesson. ( I Have a small class!)
We would then begin to observe the moon beginning on the 11th of September during the first quarter and again from the 24th of September during the third quarter. We would take note every day to see if the moon is visible and if it is what phase is it in.I chose the lesson on making a sundial and i think this would be a wonderful lesson to add on to the sundial lesson. we have big bright windows in our classroom and i would love to track the sun through the day by marking it on our windows at set times in the day. I would then move the lesson outdoors the next sunny day and mark the pupils shadows on the ground in the yard to observe the movement of the shadows and the movement of the sun across the sky.
Module 1
Construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school grounds to see where a sundial could be placed
I am teaching in a special school, i currently teach 2nd years doing the level 2 learning program. I think this is a great activity that my pupils would really enjoy and engage in.
To engage the pupils i would draw their attention to the broken clock and ask pupils other ways to tell the time. We would look at images online of different kinds of sun dials from history. I would then after some conversation bring their attention to the website Sundials in Ireland (sundials-ireland.com)
Our big shool yard gets sun all day so we would explore where the sun is in the sky at different times of the day during that week. We would mark our shadows on the ground using chalk (each child would write their name over the shadow) and take note of the shadow at different times of the day.
For the next part of the lesson we would then look at the resource esero and make our own sundials in class.52_The-sundial.pdf (esero.ie)
Then we would take them outside and explore telling the time using them.
I would link with our very talented woodword teacher and ask him to explore this furter and make a permanent sundial for our yard as i think it would make a fantastic addition to our school yard.