Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I never considered using Instagram to support a lesson. It seems so obvious on reflection. Although I am pretty sure our school firewall might limit use in the actually classroom.
Consider Songs, Poems and Art which connect us to the dark skies.
When I stopped to consider songs which connect us to the dark skies, I realised that music across the centuries has reflected and captured the essence of dark skies
Classical
- Overture ToIl Mondo Della Luna (The World On The Moon) – Haydn:
- Clair de la lune -Claude Debussy
- Lullaby -Johannes Brahms –
Crooners
- Moon River – Andy Williams
- Fly me to the moon
- Blue Moon -Mel Tormé
Pop
- Walking On the Moon. The Police. …
- Man on the Moon. R.E.M. …
- Moon Dance – Van Morrison
- Sky full of stars – Cold Play
- The whole of the moon-The Waterboys
Many of the worlds most renowned artists have also reflected the night skies in their compositions.
- Witches’ Sabbath -Francisco Goya, 1797–1798
- Nocturne in Black and Gold – The; Falling Rocket, James Whistler c. 1875
- The Boulevard Montmartre at Night, Camille Pissarro1897
I particularly like Pissarro’s canvas as it could be seen as capturing early light pollution!
When considering suitable poems for Primary school at the junior level (where I will be teaching next year), several nursery rhymes fitted the brief
- Twinkle Twinkle
- Hey Diddle Diddle
- The Owl and the pussy cat
Hi Gráinne, I like the idea of the school playing a part in the community and helping promote a community wide initiative.
Engaging Learners to explore Biodiversity in the local area.
A huge amount of time and effort has been invested in the design and establishment of an incredibly thoughtful school garden and the promotion of biodiversity within our school grounds. We have a gardening club that meets weekly to maintain the garden along with individual classes having their own raised beds.
In class we would consider useful vocabulary relating to the different types of plants and animals in our garden. (Butterfly, ladybird, sage, flowers, vegetables, leaves, soil, habitat) before embarking on a nature hunt in the school garden.
The Nature hunt worksheet would contain pictures of plants in the garden in one column and pictures of possible bugs in another column
Working in pairs, I would encourage the child to find particular plants and try and match the bug most likely associated with it (we had a profusion of ladybirds living in our herb bed). I would ask the children to consider what might happen if bees or flowers were to disappear from our garden? How would it look?
I would also encourage the children to visit our ‘Bug Hotel’ a count the number of different bugs that they can see. This is and hands on learning activity based in the garden not the classroom. As housing developments multiply in the surrounding areas, perhaps the School Gardening Club could record numbers across the year and consider the impact this has on the number of visitors to the hotel.
Hi Dolores, I too, had not fully appreciated how much light pollution affects our environment. I was quite shocked by the reduction in quality from the 1997 World Atlas night sky map to 2015.
Reflection: How light pollution is impacting the local area.
The impact of light pollution became very apparent last Winter when it was possible to view the Aurora Borealis from parts of the locality.
Standing at the outer reaches of the head looking out to sea from the Eastern Seaboard, we were fortunate to be able to observe the northern lights clearly percolating the night skies above. However, spectacle was hugely obstructed by turning 180 degrees and facing the town. The pollution was less from street or residential lighting, but more from exceptionally bright spotlights, illuminating the local sports facilities.
The street lighting could be addressed by investing in energy efficient warm coloured bulbs, if such an item exists. While the cost might be prohibitedly expensive to redesign the existing street lighting, perhaps it should be mandatory that all new lighting in housing developments or industrial locations, conform to a design that minimises light pollution. This could be a great project for older students to undertake. Suggestions regarding the illumination of sports grounds could be beneficial.
Using Stellarium as a teaching resource to identify The Plough/ aratrum. 2<sup>nd</sup> – 3<sup>rd</sup>Class
Firstly, as I teaching tool, after spending some time exploring both Stellarium and WorldWide Telescope, I decided to base my lesson using Stellarium because of it’s simplicity compared to WWT, which I found too complex and overwhelming given so many dropdown menus. It definitely was not user friendly!
- Location Opening Stellarium on the whiteboard, I would draw the children’s attention to the location from which The Plough is being observed – our school grounds. In my experience, building connections for the children enhances learning.
- Date/Time. We would discuss what happens when we drag the slider across a 24 hour time period to consider night and day.
Using prompt questions – Who knows?, What is?, Where is?, Why can we only see?… etc to consider what we know about this topic. I would be keen to link it to a simple descriptive writing activity of what the skies look like at night. On our Weekly Word Wall we could add appropriate words, sparkle, clear, dark, Constellation, North Star.
I would also link it to Science/Art lesson mentioned earlier in the module of building a model of the plough
Hi Edwin,
You are so lucky to have a local ‘visual prompt’ with the Oblisk, which is familiar to the children. Learning can be so much more engaging when it is relatable to the students.
Module 1
One Year On Earth. This lesson would be aimed at the junior/middle end of the school.The teaching objective would be to be familiar with the names of the seasons and gain an understanding of how this would be reflected in our clothing and in what we see around us
We would begin by watching Paxi, Day, Night and the Seasons. Using prompter questions, we could discuss the different weather and items of clothing worn by Paxi on his travels.
Using Collaborative work, in tables, each group would have a selection of pictures of different clothes, flowers in blossom,and different pictures with words related to the seasons. It would link nicely with Maths and Time, so I would also include cards with the names of the different months to consolidate a broader knowledge of this topic. The use of word cards would also afford the opportunity to sound out and practice reading the months.
A picture pertaining to a particular season would appear on the interactive white board eg an ice-cream or flower buds etc. There would be music akin to that used in 1% Club, with a countdown. The aim of the exercise would be to find the appropriate clothing, months, and seasonal pictures amongst the selection available to the different tables of children.
When the countdown has been completed, we would discuss the different choices made by each table and explore why they chose particular pictures.
Hi Michelle, I agree that hands on learning is more effective. Field trips where the children buddy up and looking for particular items generates lots of excitement in my class. From previous years I recall how engaged children were when there were different workshops were arranged in the school. Consequently, I imagine they would adore a visit from ARC!
I am fortunate to live by the coast where ‘adopt a patch of beach’ has been active for fifteen years. Locals, schools and various groups pick up litter and maintain small areas along the beach. It proves the point ‘in unity, there is strength.
I try to use ‘discreet’ learning and sometimes not so discreet learning to encourage sustainability in the classroom and by extension, the surrounds – using scrape paper to draw on, use of recycling bins in the classroom, switching off all lights and equipment when not in the classroom. The school established a gardening club which is extremely active, taking the message out of the classroom and into the garden. The impact on the children has been far more potent. Much effort has been put into planting vegetable beds and the choice of plants to attract pollinators. The children are putting into practice ‘from field to fork’. We want the garden to be a sustainable entity, so a roster has been set up for the summer months, to maintain our wormery with the view, to generating our own compost for the plants. Also, as a school, in an attempt to promote and sustain biodiversity, we placed bug ‘hotels’ at various locations, over the past few years. This year we went further and participated in ‘No mow May’.
We lead by example so hopefully we are instilling a sense of responsibility in the children.Hi again Michelle, I agree that children are often reluctant to try fish. I actually thought that the BIM Nutrition Booklet, which listed a whole array of fish, might just pique their curiosity with regard to sampling different fish.
The school in which I work seeks to review and revise its healthy food policy on an ongoing basis. We strongly discourage parents from sending in cakes and sweets to celebrate occasions but it is not always easy to implement.
Most years I would discuss the food pyramid with my class – SPHE (RSE Programme), Science, Learn Together. This lesson was really enlightening, as I was unaware just how ‘super’ a food fish is. I was really surprised to learn about the high levels of certain micronutrients (Iron, Zinc, Calcium and Potassium), contained in fish, additional to being rich in Omega-3. I spent some time reading through the BIM Seafood Handbook. It fascinated me to discover the levels of macro and micronutrients of personal favourites. Lemon Sole is a good choice! When discussing the Food Pyramid, I definitely think, this booklet could be used with older children to highlight the nutrients found in different fish. A fun activity could be to compare levels of selected nutrients found fin fish as to those in shellfish or white fish to oily fish. The eye spy game could be used with younger classes in a variety of guises – Science, Art, Literacy, Maths, Geography, enabling them to read and recognise sustainable logos, design their own logo or even in Maths to support place value learning by identifying units or tens when reading gram content.