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I love that you highlighted that line “Cos you get lighter the more it gets dark’- it’s such a great one for the theme and for emphasising the effects of light pollution. It could become the headline of the project.
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky?
Songs: Nightswimming- REM, Star Star – The Frames, Rocketman – Elton John, Space Oddity – Bowie, Fly me to the Moon- Sinatra, The Whole of the Moon- Waterboys, Talking to the Moon- Bruno Mars…
Once I began listing examples of songs and thinking of the poetry and artwork, I realised the examples were endless! I think it could be a good project for my 6th class next year to choose their own inspirational art piece to inspire their creative project. For example, someone might choose to recreate Starry Night, learn to play Clair Du Lune or create a piece of art showing “Fly me to the Moon”. In the past my classes have always enjoyed having creative choice and it could open up so many discussions on the impact of the night sky on our creativity.
I love that you installed wildlife cameras and bird boxes with cameras to capture the animals that visit the school grounds at night. I would imagine the children love that! It’s definitely something I’d like to add to our school garden. It was also a great idea to get support from the Local Men’s shed. I know ours had helped a few years ago in updating our library and I wonder if i could reach out to get their help with these habitats.
- How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
Every year, our 6th class pupils take part in a study of their local Biosphere and start with nature walks where we use local research and our own observations, including the arrival of Brent Geese, to learn about the environment and how it is protected. Our school is within the UNESCO Dublin Bay Biosphere area and has the protected Sluice River and Baldoyle nature reserve only a few hundred metres away so there are a lot of resources available. Until now though we have never really considered/looked at light pollution or the conservation of nocturnal wildlife. This module reminded me and highlighted the fact that artificial light can affect bats when they are feeding and navigating, disturb bird migration and breeding patterns and also have a major impact on nocturnal invertebrates. It also stressed that school biodiversity plans should include practical ways to reduce these pressures and support species that depend on darkness. After doing some local research I found that the current Tidy Towns Biodiversity Action Plan includes a proposal to install bat boxes along the lane behind our school. I would now add this to our unit and have the children research suitable locations and design and make bat boxes of our own. We already have bee and bug hotels in our nature garden so I would also like to create safe spaces for hedgehogs and other nocturnal animals and review any unnecessary outdoor lighting around the school. I could invite members of the Tidy Towns in to the school to discuss their efforts or to join us on our nature walks to show us the work that they have been doing.
I really love the idea of a family stargazing evening and keeping an observation journal. Many of the children in my class last year were in the local Scouts club and I would be encouraging them to to take pictures and observations on their next camping trip.
- Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I teach in Dublin and agree with others that the light pollution is something that the children may not even notice. I was trying to think of ways to allow them to observe the night sky in real time, without the need to take a camping trip! I’m wondering if I’d be able to coordinate with other schools around the country using an online tool such as Padlet so that children from different counties could share their observations of the night sky (upload a picture for homework) and discuss in school the variations and causes.
I also think this would link really well with our history studies of the World Wars. We could look at the placement of Eire signs and discuss the blackouts and what that might look like in today’s society.
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 like the idea of observing the Moon in the mornings and the discussions that this would open up. I would plan one Moon observation each month on a school morning close to the last quarter phase when it usually remains visible during the morning. Using calendars of the Moon and my own school calendar I would choose these realistic dates for observation to avoid closures and weekends etc:
4 September 2026
5 October 2026
2 November 2026
1 December 2026
29 January 2027
1 March 2027
30 March 2027
28 April 2027
28 May 2027I would aim to observe at about 9am from the same area of the school yard. The children would record the date time weather direction height in the sky and shape of the Moon. If the weather clouds our view, we could note that and try again on the following day. We would sketch or photograph it and compare our results each month.
I agree that starting with a picture book is always a great idea to get the conversation going, even in 6th! The Girl Who Named Pluto by Alice B. McGinty is a nice one for the older classes and encourages them to question what else is unknown to us- making the questions and conversations endless.
I really like the idea of the children keeping a diary at home and I wonder if sunrise/sunset is challenging due to their ability, time of the year and family schedules, that it could be broken down as: morning/before school, afternoon, and before bed. Children could note the time, the suns position or an observation of something that is “in the sun”. It would give them lots of discussion in the classroom, many variations and encourage them to be more observant throughout the day.
Sundial Activity: I really like the idea of creating a sundial in the school and after this module, began to look up different possible variations. I saw a lot of sundial art lessons and I love the idea of starting the learning with a creative discovery approach. So next year, I would hope to begin on the concrete school yard using a short basketball net as the centre point. The existing yard lines would help us place it in exactly the same position each time. From 9am to 2pm the children would mark the end of the shadow every hour using chalk paint. Each mark would represent one hour and could be coloured and decorated with a monthly theme to create a large shadow art sundial. We would repeat this activity every month until spring and take a photograph from above each time. The children could compare the changing length and direction of the shadows and record the results in a graph. In spring I would use these observations as a starting point for exploring lines and angles. The children would then apply their observations and what they had learned to design and create a correctly angled fixed sundial in the school garden. We would continue to check it each month and compare its readings and shadow patterns with those from the original movable version. This would allow the class to see how a playful first design could be tested measured and improved through scientific investigation.