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I like the mix of music, poetry, and visual art—so many great ideas to bring into the classroom. I completely agree about the Northern Lights this year—such a powerful, real-life way to show the impact of light pollution. I’ll check out Johnwalshastro too.
Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?
A fun and simple way to bring the idea of a ‘Dark Sky Place’ into our classroom would be to get the children to design their own versions in the classroom. We would begin by doing some research on Dark Sky Places, like the Kerry Dark Sky Reserve, noting why these spots are important for our nocturnal animals and for looking at the stars. I’d get the children to work in small groups to draw, then build from recycled materials for display around the school so that we could teach other classes all about it. I think this would be a great way to creatively explore elements of biodiversity, environmental responsibility, space, and the local environment, and it offers so many ways to link in with other subjects, i.e,. like writing a piece about the importance of Dark Sky Places, learning more about nocturnal animals, and researching things like constellations.That sounds like such a lovely approach for introducing biodiversity to younger pupils! I like the idea of using Lego and recycled materials to build homes for bats and owls. The link between dark spaces in the bug hotel and light pollution is a really clever way to get them thinking at their level.
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans?
This year, we got our Biodiversity Green Flag, and we’re really keen to build on the great work already happening in the school. We have been very focussed on daytime biodiversity, but it would be nice to change the focus to notcturnal species. We’ve bat boxes up in the yard and we also have a fox that’s made its home in the grassy area at the edge of the yard, so this would be a great place to start.
We could to focus more on how nocturnal animals, like bats and foxes, rely on dark skies and quiet spaces and teach the children about this. The children could help carry out a light audit around the school to spot any outdoor lights that might be left on unnecessarily. We could map the bat boxes and see if these lights might interrupt them.
Focusing on noctural special is a lovely way to keep the momentum going after our Green Flag, and it helps the children see how small changes, like turning off a light, can make a big difference to the animals living just outside their classroom.
This is a great, hands-on approach to teaching light pollution. I like how you’ve connected real-world science with classroom learning, and the use of star maps and the Globe at Night project helps pupils understand the concept.
1. Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
As we an urban school, I think this is a great topic to help the students understand the impact of light pollution in their area. We would team up with a rural school for this and make it a collaborative project where we can compare and contrast our findings. We would begin in class with a discussion on light pollution and its effect on our ability to see stars, the moon and how it impacts wildlife in our area. We would then carry out an investigation comparing star visibility in our area using Globe at Night, and compare it to the area in which our rural school students are based.
Then, as homework, the students would be encouraged to carry out a visibility test at night, with a parent, and log their findings in our journals. As a class, we would compile our findings in an online presentation that we will share with the rural school, and they will do the same, so we can see the difference.
This would be a great way to learn about light pollution and link up with another school in the process.
I think that’s a great idea to have the lessons coincide with Science week – the students would love using the binoculars. Really studying the moon for the whole week would give them great insight!
This sounds like a great lesson. I like the incorporation of Newgrange. There would also be some great discussion around what type of materials to use ot create the sundial, and then going outside to see how they work!
Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”.
With 6th class students, I would tell them that we’re becoming solar observers for the week, and in groups, we will observe and document the positions of the sun each day. We will use the same sun spot in the yard or school garden and record its position at three times throughout the day, 9am, 12pm and 2pm. Using a metre stick as a sundial, we can trace the shadow the sun casts onto large pieces of card. We will note time, direction, shadow length, and weather conditions into our sun journals.
At home, the children will try and do the same, at different times so that we have a full picture of the sun over a day. At the end of the week, we can compare and contrast different groups’ sun journals and use our learning as inspiration for an art class on the theme of the sun.
I’d make a plan to observe the moon in the morning with my class. I agree with another person who said that the children are so intrigued by seeing the moon in the morning so I know they would be really excited to discuss why it’s visible. My lesson would be to observe and record the moon visually and through a small bit of descriptive writing. We would go out to the yard not long after getting into school during the last quarter phase of the moon. The children will start by observing, describing, and then will create their own visuals through drawing, taking a photo, using chalks etc. to document it. They will use their observations to create a piece of descriptive writing.We will repeat this a few times during different phases of the moon, and create a lovely visual for the class to help with class discussion.