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How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans
I would start by introducing the idea of nocturnal animals in general and how they have adapted to their environments. The Esero 30 Day and Night in the World activities would be a good place to start. We could check on maps.biodiversityireland.ie to see if any nocturnal animals have been recorded in the area surrounding the school or if there are any other signs of nocturnal activity.
We could learn about bats from the Bat Conservation Ireland website and learnaboutbats.com and possibly add some bat boxes to the area surrounding the school. We could look at the possible impact of lighting in the school environment and what negative impact it may be having on nocturnal animals like bats. Could we make any changes at school level like changing the type or style of lighting? It might be a nice idea to make an information leaflet/video to distribute to local residents and businesses to inform them about the nocturnal animals in the locality and simple changes we can make to protect those animals that rely on dark skies.
It would be really interesting to see/hear the diverse stories from families from different backgrounds and countries. Also a potentially very beneficial inter-generational project that could be done with older people in the community who have no links to the school.
Twinkle Twinkle is such a lovely, simple rhyme which could act as a wonderful starting point for learning about dark skies especially for infant classes. It really lends itself to further activities in art and music especially. Some lovely ideas here!
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky? For example: Look up President Michael D Higgins’ “Stardust”
The suggested poems, ‘The Wound at the Side of the House’ by John O ‘ Donoghue and ‘Aedh Wishes For the Cloths of heaven’ by Yeats are lovely examples of poems which connect us to the night sky. I also loved the version of Bowie’s ‘ Starman’ which would be lovely to do with the children. Others that came to mind were Don Mc Clean’s ‘Starry Starry Night’ and Coldplay’s ‘A Sky Full of Stars’
Niki Purcell’s painting ‘The Mystery Moon and the Midnight Sea’ is lovely and James Crombie has a lovely photograph called ‘Aurora Borealis at Lilliput’ . The visibility of the Northern Lights in many areas earlier this year was a perfect example of the impact of light pollution. They were much more visible and vibrant in the darker countryside than in towns/cities.
I also follow Johnwalshastro on Instagram, who posts amazing astrological photography. He cane to mind as he recently had a post about light pollution in the suburban area where he lives and the difference in quality of photographs he can get when photographing in his family home in the countryside.
That must be wonderful to have cameras to pick up the activity of badgers around the school. What a fantastic way to get the children to engage in the idea of biodiversity and nocturnal animals. I can imagine the enthusiasm with which they would design badger houses after seeing them in action.
I like the idea of doing this mini project as a starting point to further exploration. It is an extra challenge to get the children to examine the sky when it’s dark so parental support will be very important for this. The data collection could be linked to maths and the topic itself to lots of cross curricular work in science, geography and art.
Planning a project for your class to take part in the International Dark Sky Association’s “Rising Star” Awards Programme
To start with we would have to learn about what light pollution is. We could start with the Esero Light and Dark worksheets and examining the increase in light pollution images comparing 1997 to 2015. We could look at the general negative impacts of light pollution on people and animals and the environment.
We could move from there to doing some practical investigations in our local area. We could look at street lights in the community around the school. We could count and categorise the different streetlights used and how effective or not they are at reducing light pollution. We could do this in conjunction with the spaceweek investigation designing a device to reduce light pollution from a model street light? Maybe we could contact the local council to see if they have a plan for changing or upgrading streetlights with light pollution in mind.
We could do an investigation into the wildlife in the immediate vicinity of the school and the potential impact of light pollution on them. Some motion sensor night cameras to record nocturnal activity would be fun to play around with!
Lastly we could look at our school building and whether it is adding to light pollution in the area with unnecessary security light etc.
Ideally it would be great to give the children some information about dark skies and light pollution and have them come to with their own ideas for investigating, researching and taking action.
I like the idea of the observation journal here. I think recording the weather is a good idea as it will likely cause some visibility issues at times! Collating the class findings on a classroom sky chart is a nice idea too. It would lead to lots of discussion I’m sure!
Stellarium is a really interesting teaching resource. I would use it as follows:
Show the children how to use Stellarium by putting it on the whiteboard and pointing out various features such as setting our location and the features that names the constellations and shows them as images.
I would give the children the opportunity to work in pairs to explore Stellarium on their individual devices. In my experience they generally find new and interesting features that I haven’t!
I would give the children a checklist of things to find.
The Moon
The North Star
The Plough
Cassiopeia
Jupiter
The ISS
I would ideally be able to set some ‘Stellarium homework’, getting parents involved with using it on devices at home so that children can find planets and constellations in the night sky. It could also be used in conjunction with the starwheels shown at the beginning of Module 2.
Children could find a favourite constellation, draw it from observation, describe to others how to find it in the night sky and find out more information about the stories associated with it.
I like the idea of using Newgrange as a stimulus for the lesson. It raises so many questions about the position of the sun in the sky at different times of year and different times of the day. It lends itself to asking the question ‘how did people know what time it was before we had watches etc?’ and a discussion about why the sun was so important to our ancestors.
Construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school grounds to see where a sundial could be placed
I would start by letting the children experiment with light and shadows. The children could stick a pencil in an upright position in a lump of bluetack and experiment with a torch to see how to make long and short shadows. How does the position of the torch affect the shadows?
I show children images of sundials and ask them what they thought they were. We could discuss how they are used to tell the time. We could construct simple sundials from paper/card and experiment with them using the torches again.
I would use the fact that we are due to get a new school building next year as a stimulus for picking a good location on the grounds. We could examine the plans for the new building and try to pick a location that we think might be suitable for a sundial. We could experiment with various locations, using a pole in an upturned flower pot method described in the video. We could mark each hour or half hour throughout the school day. We would have to observe whether the chosen location was in sunlight for the whole day or whether current or new buildings would block the light