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Festivals inspired by the night sky include my favourite “Tanabata” which is celebrated in Japan and I was lucky enough to be there during it! It celebrates the meeting or Orihime and Hikoboshi (they are represented by the stars Vega and Altair). Orihime and Hikoboshi are lovers separated by the Milky Way and are only allowed meet on the seventh day of the seventh month. We’re not in school on the 7th July but it would be lovely to celebrate by writing our wishes on colourful paper and tying them to a branch (should be bamboo but oh well) situated in the classroom. It’s such a lovely colourful celebration and brings new meaning to wishing upon a star. I know a festival is technically not art, poetry or music but it is such a colourful time in Japanese towns.
As for songs, some of my favourites include:
Starman by David Bowie
Space Oddity by David Bowie
Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay
Superstar by Beach House (maybe not for students but good none the less)
Vincent (starry starry night) by Don McLean
And of course art works would include Starry Night and Starry Night over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans
Following on from learning about light pollution, I would ask the children to do an investigative walk about the school grounds to see can we spot any lights that might be non-essential or may even be using bulbs that might be too harsh. This might lend itself nicely to our school council that is made up of students from 3rd to 6th class who may request that our bulbs be changed to warm light rather than blue light. We might also ensure that our school flowerbeds have flowers to attract nocturnal insects, wildflowers to attract pollinators and we might also see about installing bird boxes or a bug hotel.
That’s a nice idea Nicola, you could also incorporate that investigation with which constellations are visible and from where.
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
Light pollution in Sligo has increased in recent years mainly due to increased residential and commercial lighting. Even where I live which would be considered more rural, the light pollution has increased and despite me being lucky enough to still be able to see stars and planets at night, I have noticed that photographing them is more difficult due to street lights nearby. This topic might be one of interest to my students as we have children coming to school from more rural areas as well as children from Sligo town. While the Aurora Borealis has been viewed from Sligo an Sligo town increasingly in the past few years, the children have already commented how although they could see it, it was “better” from areas such as Rosses Point. It would be interesting to get them to elaborate on why that is. If there are other problems caused by light pollution in their areas (particularly in the town area). Another commenter suggested an audit where students inspect the lighting around their school to see does it adhere to Dark Sky Ireland Guidelines. This audit might also be of interest to children living in estates in and around Sligo town.
What a lovely way of using Stellarium! The list is nice and simple and it would be a lovely way to get parents involved too!
Create an observing plan for autumn that shows which planets are visible in the evening sky.
I would begin by asking the children what they have seen in the night sky, have they seen any particularly bright starts? Did they think they were just stars or could they be something else given their brightness? I would also ask about their general knowledge about space, what they know is out there, whether through previous learning or simply from observing the night sky. This would build on their prior knowledge. This would then lead on to a lesson about the solar system and various characteristics about the planets. I would also be sure to let the children know that the night sky changes throughout the year with the changing of the seasons, that the planets visible around sunset in autumn will not be the same in summer. We would then look at what planets are visible at this particular time of year.
Through using a simple star chart, I would guide the children how to use the chart to spot and mark planets. We will look at where planets should be appearing at a certain time in the evening sky. This would lead nicely into a homework activity, which hopefully will be interesting (and will have a clear sky to accommodate it!). The children could fill in their star chart based on what they have observed. These charts could then be compared the following morning we would then use this star chart either over the course of a week, or even several weeks to see what changes we notice in the night sky as time goes on.
A nice project activity would be to assign a planets that is visible in the night sky to a group of children to draw up a nice fact sheet about their planet and make a larger diagram of the night sky for other classes in the school to learn from.
What a lovely idea Aileen, constructing a sundial on the beach! Between stones, shells and seaweed there would be so much available to them to create their sundials!
Q.3. Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
Prior to our investigation I would show the children the video from module 1 of constructing a sundial in the garden. I would bring the children out to the yard where we would investigate where would be a good position to place a sundial. Using compasses, I would encourage the children to choose a space that is brightly lit during the day and facing south. We would then construct our sundial.
During the first day (which would hopefully be sunny enough), I would send a group of children out on the hour to mark where the shadows are marking the time. Another idea might be to take photos of the sundial at these times to then display in the classroom, almost as a “school day clock”.
We would also observe where the sun’s position is in the sky at the time, the length and direction of shadows and also the movement or path of the sun across the sky throughout the day i.e the sun is on one side of the school in the morning as opposed to the other side of the school in the evening.
Another activity to link to home might be where I could look up the sunrise and sunset times of that particular day and encourage the children to observe where the sun is at sunset for example, what side of your house does the sun set? What does this tell us about the position of your home seeing as we know that the sun sets in the west?
Another activity for older children could be to link the lesson on position of the sun to Irish, the notion that “taobh thiar” meaning “behind” literally means “to the west side” insinuating that the speaker is facing east. Why would east be important? Where does the sun rise? Why would the sunrise be important to generations before us? Can we think of any other examples of linking the sun to phrases or sayings that we have in Irish, English, Polish etc.