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Songs, poems, and art have long been used as powerful mediums to connect humanity with the beauty and mystery of the dark night sky. Here are some examples that evoke the beauty of the night sky –
Songs:
• ‘Stargazing’ by Kygo ft. Justin Jesso – This song captures the sense of wonder and exploration that comes with admiring the stars in a clear night sky.
• ‘Starry, Starry Night’ by Don McLean – Inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s iconic painting, this song encapsulates the emotional connection between art and the night sky.Poems:
• A short poem ‘A Clear Midnight’ by Walt Whitman, the poet reflects on the timeless presence of the night sky as a source of solace and inspiration after the day, allowing an opportunity to see the expanse sky and the possibility of life.Art:
• ‘The Starry Night’ by Vincent van Gogh – This famous painting illustrates the beauty of the stars free from light pollution. I believe it shows the beauty of nature in one of finest moments – during the night.
• The contemporary light installation “The Pool” by Jen Lewin offers a unique interactive experience that reminds me of the the night sky as it is a field of illuminated orbs. This exhibition has been moved around to many large cities like Hong Kong, Istanbul and Sydney. Viewers can create their own combination by stepping on the orbs and creating a sequences. This reminds me of the bright stars in the night sky.Wow Katie, what an extensive list. There are some there especially of the songs that I really enjoy and make me feel limitless.
If I was creating a set of lesson on biodiversity in the locality and the impacts of light pollution on these organisms, I would begin by begin by asking the question is there many different types of animals and plants in our school community. I would get students to think pair share their ideas and feed them back to the class, creating a mind map. Next to spark their interest I would show them a brief video of some of the biodiversity in Ireland, discussing which were not mentioned previously. Next, I would move onto planning for how we are going to find and record what animals and plants are within our school community. We would go outside with our nature eyes and take note and a photo using IPads of any animals or plants we found. Conduct research on these animals and plants to find out their identity and find new information about them.
For the next lesson I would revise light pollution with the group, I would put children in groups and provide them with an image of various animals like bats, owls etc. I would get students to brainstorm why they think excess light at night time would be negative for their animal, following the brainstorm I would provide them with Chromebook and allow them to research what effect light pollution has on that animal.
For the final lesson, I would get each group to feedback their finding of how light pollution effects their animal. This could be linked with English report writing on light pollution on bats etc, map of the biodiversity in school Geography.Hi Robyn,
I really like your ideas that you mentioned here in your post.
Photos are a very effective way of visually comparing and contrasting and it is very obvious to children the difference and similarities.
My locality of Dublin 24, like many urban regions, faces the detrimental effects of light pollution. The excessive artificial light not only disrupts animals’ ability to hunt, navigate and communicate thus making them more vulnerable to predators, starving, unable to mate etc. Yet light pollutions also have impacts human health and well-being for example fatigue or insomnia due to light trespassing. Lack of sleep can be damaging to a person’s health. The Dunsink Observatory in North Dublin reported that in 2019, Dublin was 7 times brighter than any other area in Ireland. As an educator, engaging young learners in understanding this issue is crucial.
To explore light pollution with students, I would start by introducing the concept of light pollution and its effects on the environment both in humans and animals. Following that lesson, I would encourage student to go on a night-time nature walks with an adult in a safe space, I would encourage students can observe how light pollution is damaging, then in the following lesson we would discuss how light pollution reduces the visibility of the stars and constellations along with disrupting nocturnal animals.
Furthermore, lessons on energy conservation in homes (switch off light if not needed, using warm light bulbs etc.) and responsible use of outdoor lighting (sensor outside light, garden lighting etc) this can empower students to become more sensible with lighting.
A follow up activity to further their knowledge could be to encourage them to conduct research projects and create posters about light pollution can deepen their understanding and foster a sense of respect of the environment.Stellarium is an excellent resource for the classroom when instructing students about constellations. A lesson, I would plan a lesson using stellarium as a resource as follows.
I would begin by asking students: “Have you ever looked up at the night sky and tried to find shapes in the stars?” and allow them to discuss this then I would spark their interest by showing them a simple picture of a connect-the-dots constellation and have them guess what shape it might be.
Here I would introduce that we are going to use a website to study different constellations. I would explain that constellations are patterns of stars that form recognisable shapes in the night sky. I would also explain that constellations got their names from ancient civilisations from storytelling.
Next, I would open up stellarium Website by using guided practice I would demonstrate many features like; how to change the time and date, how to move the view of the sky, how to turn on constellation lines, art, and labels. I would use an example of Hercules as student will have prior knowledge him.
Then in pairs I would get students to try and find specific constellations like Orion and then find specific stars like Rigel.
Finally, I would get students to complete Independent work, where they would use the stellarium website to draw the design of 3 constellation and label it.
As a closing activity I would show a sample of the constellations drawn under the visualiser and see if any of the children through using the stellarium website can determine what constellation has been drawn.I really like your idea Mairead of giving different students or different classes projects or assignments, then everyone will have an input into creating the schools new sundial.
If I was to choose any of the topics mentioned above I would probably go with constructing a sun-dial in school environment.
I would start by triggering their interest and shows them images of old and new sundials and asking them if they know what they are and what they are used for. Then we would investigate the following; the importance of the sun in space, understanding how sundials work and researching different types of sundials.
Investigation, I would get the children to make a simple sundial using simple materials like paper plates, straws, and a pencil. I would guide them through the process of aligning the sundial with the sun and marking it.
As the day goes on I would take the children outside to observe the movement of the sun on their sundials.This will link directly with Maths and the strand unit of time.
Climate change is effecting everyone, on a daily basis. I find that I am consciously aware of it as my father is a farmer. He grows crops every year mostly grains so the prime season would be spring and summer. We have noticed the biggest change in climate in the last 3 years. The yield from his crop growth has been declining each year based on the weather, the extremes of rain, wind and cold has meant a reduction in crop produces each year and unfortunately this year will be no different. I look out and see golden fields with patches of green which would have been a foreign sight 10 years ago. Climate change can also be seen in the length of time animal were kept indoors due to the bad weather (again cold, rain etc.) and the limited grass growth this in turn put pressure on farmers to find grass substitutes to feed their animals. This is where I see the impacts of climate change most due to my family circumstances.
1. Green Committee in each class – encouraging every class to complete actions that will help the environment and slow down climate change; recycling, using the compost bin correctly, switching off lights, using reusable plastic bottles etc.
2. Tidiest Class – in a school I previously taught in, there was an award for the class that had the least amount of rubbish in the class bin and they won a trophy and it was announced at the end of the week. This encouraged the children to think about the foods they were bringing to school, what they were covered in, using paper efficiently etc. The students can up with fantastic ways of reducing the amount of waste in the bin thus promoting a culture of reducing waste in the long term.
3. Sustainable transport day/week – if possible depending on location set up a week where staff and students reduce the amount of emissions from their cars, by walking, cycling, taking the bus etc. Encourage families to try a climate friendly way of making it to school where possible.
I think recycling correctly could be easily inputted in the school self evaluation plan. A lot of students don’t know what materials are recyclable and just throw it in the bin and never think about where it goes after and what effect this has. By completing lesson on what is recycling, what materials can be recycled, the recycling symbols and the benefit of benefit of recycling. This could significantly reduce the waste in the school and achieve a target with the school.
In my community, Dublin 24, there is an excellent support available which assist refugees within the locality – South Dublin County Partnership. The group is based in Tallaght but has other location in Clondalkin and Citywest as there are large numbers of refugees in these areas. The SDCP aims to ensure all people feel welcome and included within Irish Society therefore they provide supports on social housing and accommodation, education and employment along with teaching English and promoting positive mental health and well-being. They are a fantastic support to many in our community.
In schools there are many ways to welcome refugees into the school community. First there is education, in my current school we have an inclusion day where we celebrate all the different nationalities in our school. This year we had 37 different nationalities – each nationality was celebrated by holding up the national flag, stating some facts like, the currency, capital city, population and a greeting in their language. After the group celebration each class went and researched a different country. The students really enjoyed the inclusion day and the children from the various different countries really loved being celebrated.
Hi Emer,
Your post was so well written, like your school, mine was very similar in it approach when the war broke out in Ukraine, families were very empathetic. Our school raised a substantial amount of money which was donated to a local group that was supporting Ukrainian families with clothing, food, support in gaining information about Irish services.
One impactful way to engage students in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ireland thus focusing on ESD to 2030, is to highlight the global goal of Quality Education (SDG4), by specifically investigating how children are affected by access to education at both local and global levels.
At the local level, students can be made aware of disparities in educational opportunities within Ireland itself, such as differences in resources between urban and rural schools. (smaller class sizes, access to internet, transport etc) By fostering understanding of these local disparities, students can be encouraged to take action. This could be in the form of setting up a penpal scheme between children in urban Dublin and a rural part of Ireland, allowing them to investigate the difference in the schools and if there is a major difference coming together to write letters to the minister of education or local politicians.
On a global scale, children in developing countries often lack access to quality education, which hinders their ability to break the cycle of poverty. Students in Ireland can participate in fundraisers or letter-writing campaigns or research projects to inform themselves about education in other countries. Again writing letters to local councillors expressing the unfairness and demanding change.
Empowering students to take action at the local level not only instils a sense of responsibility towards their immediate community but also contributes to the wider global effort of achieving SDG 4: Quality Education by 2030. By emphasizing the interconnectedness of local and global challenges in education, students can be motivated to make a meaningful impact in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Andrew, I really like your idea of project based learning in relation to climate change and the awareness of this concept. Sometimes students hear all the facts about polar ice melting and sea level raising and they find it hard to apply it to their own personal circumstances. So the use of research and awareness of how it will affect their own community is an excellent idea, making it more topical and thus encouraging children to be proactive about climate change.
Firstly, gender stereotypes can affect students from a very young age, even as babies (dressing children in certain colour, giving them certain toys or involving them in gender specific hobbies). I think gender stereotypes begins at home and is very heavily influenced by one’s parents view on gender. It can be difficult or challenging to change a certain mindset that is being projected onto a child.
I have observed the presence of gender stereotypes in most of my recent years of teaching, I currently work in a senior school. From small instances like I want blue, green card as that’s a boy’s colour or I don’t want to use your writing pencil as it has love hearts design on it. More obvious examples has been when creating groups like mentioned above by many others where the boys will want to take on the leader role or the problem solver as they believe they should be in this role and that the girls should take a more subsidiary role like note-taking as they are considered to be neater and tidier.
It is our job, as educators to try and create an environment where students feel empowered to fulfil their capabilities and pursue their interests and talents without being limited by gender expectations. This approach not only helps dismantle harmful stereotypes but also fosters a more inclusive and equitable classroom culture, preparing students to contribute positively to a diverse and global society.
Hi Shona,
I totally agree with your mentioned points above. Gender stereotypes are definitely present in my current school. I observed the junior children mix and play happily with one another whilst as the children become more aware of themselves in older classes you can see a divide becoming apparent.