Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Activity 3 is very engaging. The Paxi video is a great starting point. It simplifies what is often regarded as a complex topic into a child friendly tool. The use of visuals and clear language explains how the greenhouse gases trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere. I also enjoyed the video by SEAI ‘The Story of Energy’. The activity by ESA called ‘Earth Under a Lid’, the Esero 47 activity ‘The Ice is Melting’, and the SEAI activity ‘Model the Greenhouse Effect’ are very child friendly and would ignite the interest of the children. I would certainly use these.
The Teal tool introduced a digital element and helps the children to predict future temperatures around the world. The instruction video would need to be watched and reviewed in order to engage properly with it. I had to watch it a few times to grasp it.
The video by David Attenborough ‘Save Our Planet’ reinforces the message that we must all play our part. A follow on from this would be a class discussion on how we can adapt our activities to reduce emissions such as walking or scooting to school, turning off lights and appliances when not needed. Artwork could reinforce these messages around the school.Hi Robert. That’s a great idea using Activity 3 for a project on countries of the world. A very unique slant! Well done and thanks for sharing.
Lots of great resources here to aid teaching and explaining weather and climate. The videos, songs and slides outline the differences in a very clear way. Weather v Climate has very useful activities and links. Creating a weather station will provide the children with great opportunities to engage in problem solving in a fun manner and to work collaboratively to achieve their aims. We have a small planting area in our school yard, so this would be the ideal place to set up the weather station. As far as possible we would make our own instruments as outlined in ‘Nose High Up in the Sky’ and the wonderful worksheets attached to it. Children use thermometers to record daily temperature. Rain gauges and anemometers could be made using simple everyday objects and data would be collected from them. I think it would be interesting to link with a teacher in a different county or indeed a different country to compare data collected. This data and findings could be presented or shared at assembly or on notice boards or in a school newsletter. Lots of maths, science, geography, engineering, technology and literacy covered in these wonderful activities.
Task 2.
There are so many songs, poems and pieces of art to fire up our imagination and encourage us to wonder about the universe.Songs.
‘Space Man’ by Sam Ryder. ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’ by Chris de Burgh.
‘Moon River’ by Andy Williams. ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ by Frank Sinatra.
‘Catch a Falling Star’ by Perry Como. ‘Man on the Moon’ by REM.
‘Life on Mars’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Space Oddity’ all by David Bowie.
‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John. ‘Walking on the Moon’ by The Police.Art.
‘Starry Night’. ‘Café Terrace at Night’ and’ Starry Night over the Rhone’, all by Vincent Van Gogh.
‘Summer Night’. ‘Winter Night in the Mountains’, both by Harald Sohlberg.
‘Starlight Night’ by Georgia O’Keefe
‘Full Moon Over the Earth’ by Joan Miro
‘Hai dou ya Moon’ Canvas Wall Art.
‘Art Blart’ by Charles Bittinger
‘Moonrise over the Sea’ by Caspar David Friedrich.Poetry.
‘The Wound at the Side of the House’ by John O’Donohoe
‘The Cloths of Heaven’ by WB Yeats.
‘Stars’ by Robert Frost
‘The Lonely Moon’ by Rensea Dasners
‘Nature’ by Ralph Waldo Emerson
‘Somebody Has To’ by Shel Silverstein.
‘The Old Astronomer to His Pupil’ by Sara Williams (excerpt from Twilight Hours)
‘Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night’.Stardust by President Higgins is a tribute to his wife Sabrina and her mother and reflects on our connection to the universe and how we have evolved from stardust.
Hi Olive,
I love the idea of integrating the traditions, story telling and piséogs with grandparents day. That would be a day to remember for old and young!
Task 2. How to engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impact of light pollution on local biodiversity.
Biodiversity is all around us and most children have a natural interest in their physical surroundings.
I would begin by asking the class what they understand by the term ‘biodiversity’. What does it encompass in their minds? We would make a mind map with their responses. We would take the school ipads and working in groups of 2-3, we would explore the school grounds and the nearby park area. The children can record what they find, be it animal, plant, insect, bird noting the various habitats. The children will be reminded not to take any samples back and to leave their habitats as they find them. Back at school we will share our findings and create a visual presentation for other classes.
We would explore the topic of light pollution using the wonderful resources covered in Module 3 and in this module. We would discuss how dangerous light pollution is to insects and moths as they swarm around lightbulbs, often being scorched. We would explore how the eyes of nocturnal animals are impacted by light and how birds and bats are disturbed. We would also explore how light pollution impacts on plants and their fragile relationship with pollinators.
We would then explore what changes we can make to reduce light pollution in our gardens, school and local area.Hi Ellen,
Building bat boxes and badger houses is a fantastic idea. Seeing the badgers on your school camera must be delightful for the children and really engage them.
Hi Sarah,
That sounds like a really well thought out plan and activity. Involving the whole family on the star gazing brings a whole extra element of fun into the equation. I love the way you have integrated science, geography and digital literacy into this task. Well done!
Task 1. Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
Light Pollution is described as ‘the inappropriate or excessive use of artificial light.’
When lighting is used excessively, it disrupts wildlife, impacts human health, wastes money and energy, contributes to climate change, and blocks our view of the universe. In fact, it was stated in one of the video links that almost 80% of the UK population cannot see the Milky Way from their home.
I teach in an urban setting and most of the children have never experienced a truly dark sky.
To begin this topic in class, we would explore what is Light Pollution? What do we know about this topic? Children would be asked to go into their garden that evening, or outside their home and look up. (Probably late autumn, as the evenings get dark earlier). What can they see in the sky? Stars, planets, or even nothing? Children make a list of all the sources of light around them while they are outside, streetlights, shop lights, neon signs, traffic lights, house/ garden/sports centre lights etc. I would ask the children to upload a picture of each light source from their list to me.
The following day we can display what the children saw and using darksky.ie we can compare our findings with a sky in a more remote part of Ireland. What are the differences and why?
Children can work in small groups to discuss what changes can we make in our homes and school to make a difference and to lessen the impact of light pollution?The stellarium appears to be a fantastic resource. I was not aware of it but I think children of all ages would love using it. And it could be a great resource to share with parents too.
Task 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?
I think I would plan this activity to be ongoing over the month of October.
I would begin this task by asking the children to tell me what shape the moon is. Some children might suggest that the moon changes shape. We would need to explore this so that everyone understands that it only ‘appears’ to change shape. We would discuss why this is so.
Next, we would enjoy the video by Paxi explaining the lunar cycle. After this, we would explore the path of the moon by setting up an activity, following the instructions as laid out in the resource from Esero 62 (The Sun, Moon, Earth task), asking ourselves, can we see the moon / full moon in the daytime?
We will use ‘timeanddate.com’ to find the calendar cycle of the moon.
Once I am satisfied that everyone understands the lunar cycle, then each child will receive a moon observation log and keep a diary of the moon for the month of October.
We will finish the exercise by going to the yard together to observe the full moon on Nov 5th at 13.20. We can follow up with some lunar painting activities.
Hi Sarah,
This sounds like a fun activity, which the children would enjoy doing. Love the idea of their own sky diary.
Task 2. Construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school grounds to see where a sundial could be placed.
I think constructing a sundial would be great fun for children of every age.
We would begin with a discussion about time and clocks. We would discuss how people from long ago measured time without watches/clocks, using hourglass and sundials. We would discuss what we know about shadows.
We would go outside into the school yard on a sunny day. Armed with our chalk, the children would get a friend to draw around their shoes and outline their shadow on the ground. They would write down the time above the shadow and the name of the child below the feet.
An hour later, we would return and standing with our feet in the same spot, have our shadow drawn again. We would repeat this over the course of the day, always writing the time above the shadow. At the end of the day, we will be able to see that the position and shape of our shadow changed as the position of the sun changed.
After this exercise we would discuss sundials and share what information we know about them. I would introduce the word ‘gnomon’ and explain it. We would discuss how we could make our own sundial, why is location important and what materials we would need. The steps outlined in the template 52 ‘The Sundial’ on Esero.ie are very clear and easy to follow and I would put these up on display, so the children can make their own paper/card sundials. Then we would head outside to enjoy using them!