Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Module 3 Question 1
I would begin by assessing student prior knowledgable and ask them what do they understand the term ‘light pollution’ to mean. I would then show the students a PowerPoint on what light pollution is and its impact on wildlife in Ireland.
The school is located in rural Galway so the students should not be too badly impacted by light pollution. I would show the students images of the night sky taken from the city and ask them to contrast it with where they live. We would then contrast the different images.
We would then take a tour of our own school and see what sources of light pollution are in the area. We could also look at doing the same at home. Students would be encouraged to go on an evening stroll in Galway city and contrast their experience.
Finally students could take a survey of what steps/measures they could take at home in order to combat light pollution.
Module 3 Question 1
I would begin by assessing student prior knowledgable and ask them what do they understand the term ‘light pollution’ to mean. I would then show the students a PowerPoint on what light pollution is and its impact on wildlife in Ireland.
The school is located in rural Galway so the students should not be too badly impacted by light pollution. I would show the students images of the night sky taken from the city and ask them to contrast it with where they live. We would then contrast the different images.
We would then take a tour of our own school and see what sources of light pollution are in the area. We could also look at doing the same at home. Students would be encouraged to go on an evening stroll in Galway city and contrast their experience.
Finally students could take a survey of what steps/measures they could take at home in order to combat light pollution.
I love the variety of different elements to this project! There are so many different elements to it and how it brings home and school together to engage the students in the project. I also love the idea getting an external group into talk to the students and seems so interesting!
I love how you used the Stellarium in the lesson and how engaged the students must be for the lesson. Being a senior class teacher, I think my students would be hugely engaged in the content of this lesson. I love the idea of designing their own constellation!
I would look at the second topic – construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school ground to see where a sundial could be placed.
I would begin with a KWL chart on telling time and encourage the students in groups to discuss what they already know about time and how time is told/has been told throughout time. We would contrast how time was told in ancient times to today.
We would then move onto how time is told on a sundial and how it functions. We would take a tour of the school and discuss possible locations for our sundial. We would discuss how the shadow on the sundial might change as the day progresses. I would create a worksheet for students to complete in groups on how they will make their sundial after watching the relevant video on the topic. This would include differentiation in terms of difficulty of questions asked. different materials would be provided to measure the distances and a compass as to what direction the shadow length is facing.
As a group we could discuss what opportunities are possible including groups measuring different times, other possible locations etc.
Once completed, students would complete a reflection on their work and then present their work to the group.
This sounds like a thoroughly enjoyable lesson with many different elements to it. I think that students would love the challenge of making their own sundial and by allowing them to use different materials would allow the class to compare what materials were effective and what materials were not so effective.