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Niall’s idea of comparing the home location with an alternative urban/rural one is great. I also love the idea of researching the night sky in another area where family members are from. This makes the research done personal to each individual student while learning the main points about reducing light pollution also.
1. Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
Light pollution in Kilkenny is mainly caused by urban skyglow, unshielded residential security lights, and local commercial lighting. While Kilkenny County Council has successfully upgraded roughly 80% of its public streetlights to directional LEDs to reduce upward light spill, private, industrial, and festive lighting continue to impact the local environment. Light pollution disrupts local wildlife such as bats, who rely on deep darkness to forage. Garden birds suffer from altered feeding cycles which leads to premature nesting. Poorly targeted white lights create sky glow which obscures views of the Milky Way and limits our connection to Aurora Borealis or meteor showers.
We will carry out a local lighting audit where I will challenge students to inspect outdoor fixtures around the school grounds or their homes using the Dark Sky Ireland Guidelines:
• Is it useful? Does the light serve a clear safety purpose?
• Is it targeted? Is the fixture fully shielded so light points strictly downward?
• Is it too bright? Are bulbs unnecessarily harsh or cold white instead of warm amber?
• What changes could be made around our school to make our lighting more environmentally friendly?I love Niall’s idea to have the children work in groups to create a fact sheet about the planets. The collaborative element of creating a class display is an excellent idea and one which the children will benefit from and remember for a long time. This lesson tries to ensure that all children are active participants instead of just passive listeners.
3. 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 2026- 2027?
We will chat about the moon’s phases using the visual aid available to print from twinkl.ie. We will discuss how the moon is sometimes visible during the day because the sunlight it reflects is bright enough to compete with the blue sky. The best time to observe the morning moon is during the Waning Gibbous Phase when the moon is high in the sky and easily visible in the morning sky. The full moon in September is on the 26th so the best observing windows fall 5-10 days after this date. We will make sure to observe the morning moon in that window. We will go outside to the school field and find the moon in the western sky. The children will sketch the moon, its position relative to the horizon and the details of light and shadow on its surface (as much as can be seen). We will then go back to the classroom, compare the sketches and discuss the features that could be observed. The children will then be given an iPad to access the Scoilnet moon learning path which will allow them to compare their own sketches to official maps.
This sounds like a lovely lesson Lorraine. Getting outside to explore and find a suitable position for the sundials would be a fantastic lesson in itself. I love also how the sundials can be made from very basic available materials, making this a very accessible and practical lesson.
1. Gravity/Weight – Assemble an Earth Tube and one other planet tube – decorate in a suitable manner.
For this lesson my students will make an Earth tube and a Jupiter tube. The objective of the lesson will be to understand that weight changes based on a planet’s gravity, but mass stays the same.
The children will need 2 Pringles tubes and 2 marbles. They will label one tube Earth and the other Jupiter and decorate accordingly. They will fill the Earth tube with cooking oil and the Jupiter tube with water. They will then drop the marble into each tube. They will secure the lids on the tubes with tape.
I will ask the students if they believe they would weigh more or less on Jupiter? I will explain that gravity is an invisible pull between objects and that bigger planets have stronger gravity.
They will flip both tubes upside down at the same time and observe that the marble in the Jupiter tube fell much faster. This is because the gravity on Jupiter is much stronger than on Earth. The water mimics the strong gravity on Jupiter while oil mimics Earth’s weaker gravity.