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Hi Sarah,
I like your idea of using the famous paintings of the night sky to inspire the children to create their own art based on the night sky.
It would really make them see the beauty of it and hopefully make them more aware of light pollution in the future.
Humans have always been interested in the night sky. Thousands of years ago people look up and saw constellations and made up stories and myths and legends about what they saw. More recently, the night sky has inspired many works of art, songs and poems.
The most famous piece of art with the night sky as the central theme is ‘The Starry Night’ by Vincent van Gogh- this painting captured the swirling energy of the night sky. Van Gogh also painted another piece about the night sky- ‘Starry Night Over Rhone’- in this painting, the night sky reflects in the water.
When I think of stars, the first thing that comes to mind it ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, which of course is a childhood classic. Another poem about the night sky is ‘Silver’ by Walter de la Mare. In this poem, he paints a picture of the moon’s light shining on a still dark night.
A song I love about the moon is ‘Moon River’ by Audrey Hepburn from the movie ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’. This song uses the moon light in the river as a symbol for dreams and the passage of time. Another song about the night sky is ‘A Sky full of Stars’ by Coldplay. This song uses the imagery of the stars to describe the brightness and beauty someone they love.
These songs, poems and paintings show the influence of the night sky on human creativity. In order for the night sky to continue to be a muse for all artists, we need to protect it and reduce light pollution.
Hi Breda,
This sounds like a great way to engage the younger learners in the topic of light pollution and it’s effects on biodiversity.
I like the idea of making posters- the children could take these home to their parents to spread awareness about light pollution and it’s effects on wildlife.
I would begin by writing the term ‘biodiversity’ on the whiteboard and getting the children to guess the meaning of the word. I would then play the ‘Gardening for Biodiversity’ video and then get the children to define biodiversity using what they heard and saw in the video. I would then play the ‘What is biodiversity’ video to solidify the meaning.
I would put the children into groups and ask them to brainstorm the biodiversity in our local area around the school and also the importance of the biodiversity in the area.
I would then ask children to discuss, in their groups, the potential dangers for the biodiversity.In the whole class discussion, after the group work, I would mention the threats that hadn’t been mentioned. I would then split the class into groups (changes in land and sea use, exploitation, climate change, light pollution and air & water pollution) and ask them to come up with ways that these threats could be minimised in our area.
HI Niamh,
I like your idea of comparing the visibility of night sky from the very rural homes to the homes of the children who live in estates. It’s very easy to blame the larger cities for light pollution, but it might be interesting for the children to learn that even small amounts of street lamps can affect the dark skies.
It would be a good follow up to ask the children what could be done in the estates to improve the light pollution.
Light pollution effects all kinds of wildlife. This is evident when I see nocturnal animals, such as foxes, walking around during the day. They are very confused about the differences between day and night, because it looks the same to them. This leads to them being run over on the roads because the road are busier in the day than in the night when they would normally be moving around.
In school, I would love to approach this topic, because it would be good for children (and potentially their families) to be aware of the dangers of light pollution.
I would play the NSW video about how to help to protect dark skies- it’s a very informative, but easy to understand video.
I would then show them the picture of the map of Ireland with the light. I teach in Dublin, and it is very obvious on the map that it is the worst offender for light pollution. I would ask the children why do they think this is and what could be done about it.I would ask them what they think are dark sky friendly lights and I would put them into some groups and ask to come up with a prototype using the junk art materials and torches. I would ask them to demonstrate their how their idea works and ask them to present why it would work to ease light pollution in the city.
Hi Niamh, I really like your idea of spending a decent amount of time on one topic and really delving into it. This is something that having SESE books in the past has not allowed us to do. I love that we are now getting away from SESE workbooks which are just colouring books for the younger classes and reading comprehensions for the senior classes. We now really have the time to do more in depth and real life learning which is way more valuable and interesting for the children.
Question 3- Plan to observe the moon
As mentioned in the slides, observing the moon during the day would be interesting for children who think that they can only see the moon at night time.
I would begin the series of lessons with a KWL chart to find out what they know about the moon and what they would like to know about the moon and its phases.
I would then show them the Paxi video about the moon and it’s phases as it is a very engaging video that the children will be able to understand.
We would be able to observe the moon about 7 days before a full moon, that’s when it is the optimum distance from the earth for us to see its apparent luminosity. We would have to wear sunglasses, as looking at the sun could be dangerous for the children’s eyes.
We could go out each morning and record what we see in the sky on the moon observation hand out.
Hi Niamh, the project you completed with your class sounds very interesting and I would say that the children learned a lot form it. I have younger classes next year, but I could do a simplified version of this using pictographs and photos and drawings.
I also really liked your idea of integrating sunrise and sunset data with ‘The Star Wars Suite’ and painting. I think that it’s sometimes easy to forget that SESE can be integrated with the arts.
From reading ‘Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.’, I feel that my classroom’s STEM education is on the right track.
I have a multi-grade class (Junior infants- 2nd class) and a lot of my STEM education happens through play, discovery and problem solving, which Dr.Liston mentions as important building blocks of STEM education.I have chosen ‘One Year on Earth– Understanding the Seasons Resource (ESA)’ to discuss on this forum. I would engage the children in this lesson by presenting the photo of the trees as they go through the different seasons. I would ask the children to describe how the trees have changed and also why they think they have changed. I would ask them when they might see the various trees. As an end to the lesson, I would get the children to divide a piece of paper into four using a ruler, and get them to draw the 4 seasons in order and the different things that happen in the seasons.
The next lesson in this series might be a bit difficult for my class, so I would end this first lesson by demonstrating the 3 ways that the earth moves around the sun. I would use 2 balls (one being the sun and one being the earth) to demonstrate the 3 different ways, focusing on how the earth tilts for the seasons to happen.