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Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
Living in Dublin, I’ve noticed how difficult it can be to see the stars clearly at night. The glow from streetlights, houses, and nearby shopping areas creates a constant brightness in the sky. This light pollution washes out many of the stars, planets, and even the Milky Way, making stargazing a challenge in our local area. What should be a natural and awe-inspiring view is often reduced to just a few visible stars. This has a real impact—not just on our connection to nature, but on learning opportunities too.To engage students in a senior school in this issue, I would begin with a simple stargazing activity, encouraging them to compare and contrast the night sky in Dublin with darker rural locations through photo and by exploring/using Stellarium with a focus on our locality and the dark sky reserve in Kerry. We would then explore how light pollution happens and discuss real-life solutions, that we as a school can partake in. After they have learnt about light pollution we could create create posters to raise awareness for our school and locality.
Hi Rachel, I really like t he idea of using the Oliver Jeffers book to spark the topic. I’m sure the children would love that story and it would invite lots of discussion about the night sky.
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 have aimed this lesson at the senior end of the school. The students will discuss what it means to be young astronomers. We will discuss what we know about the moon already and will explore what we can learn by observing the Moon and learning about its different phases. We will explore how the Moon changes shape in the sky throughout the month and explore the phases of the Moon.
Students will learn about all eight phases: New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, and Waning Crescent. We will focus especially on the Last Quarter phase, which is the best time to observe the Moon in the morning sky from school.
Each student will keep a Moon diary, recording their observations on special dates when the Last Quarter Moon is visible in Dublin. In their diaries, students will draw the Moon’s shape, describe its position, and reflect on how it changes. We will focus on keeping our diary in November when the mornings are darkest with a major focus on the 12th of November 2025.
Hi Sarah, I really like the idea of a sky diary and think it would be a lovely activity for the class.
2. Construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school grounds to see where a sundial could be placed
Senior Class
This would tie in really nicely with monastic settlements and sundials used e.g. in Clonmacnoise. We would discuss how the monks used sundials to tell the time back then by looking at how the sun moves across the sky and shadows change throughout the day. After this, we’d go outside to the yard and work in small groups to place a stick in the ground and use chalk to mark where the shadow falls every hour. This would help students see how time and shadow are connected.
Once we have learnt about sundials and how they work, we could discuss where in our outdoor classroom would be best to place a sundial to tell the time while learning outside. We’d walk around the outdoor classroom area to find a spot that gets the most sunlight. Students would use clipboards to draw simple maps and mark sunny and shady areas. Using compasses, we’d find which direction is north so they can understand how the sundial needs to be positioned. Each group would share their ideas and reasons for the best location. Together, we’d choose the best spot to place a sundial.
