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Living in a suburb of Dublin, it can be difficult to get a good view of the night sky. This was further highlighted by the difference between the Northern Lights photos taken in the city and countryside a few weeks back! Street lights, shops and flood lights for sports pitches all have a part to play in this.
In terms of classwork, I would introduce the topic through story. In my experience, a lot of students respond well to serious topics such as this through a light hearted story. It makes the topic less abstract. I would use the book ‘What if’ by Paul Bogard as a stimulus to start discussions on light pollution.
I also feel it would be necessary to teach the students specific terms such as glare, skyglow, light trespass and clutter.
While I feel teaching about light pollution could be tricky given the time of day we are together as a class, I feel I would rely on remote learning platforms such as Seesaw to let students explore the light in their area and post their findings to share with the class the next day. This would spark further discussion in class.I like the idea of creating the moons from something concrete. It would also make a great display for the classroom wall.
From looking at the topic of the moon online, I can see that the best time to observe the moon in daylight hours is during the 1st or last quarter of the moon. I, like other posters on the forum, see that the end of September will be a good time to kick off a project like this with the class.
This would allow students to get a good foundation on terms surrounding the moon in the first three weeks of the new school year. Vocabulary such as “new moon,” “waxing crescent,” “first quarter,” “waxing gibbous,” “full moon,” “waning gibbous,” “last quarter,” and “waning crescent” will be a learning curve for them all (teacher included!)
While observing the moon itself is ideal, I feel with the unpredictable nature of Ireland’s weather, an app or online resource will really support the students learning. An app such as https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moon-current-moon-phase/id660036257 could be useful for this.
