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Hi Sinead – I also liked that with the sun dial, there was room to bring in a history link and have further integration beyond the STEAM subjects. There could be such a brilliant link to Irish history and Newgrange as well.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
There are a number of ways to engage learners with the biodiversity of the locality. Children can explore this by doing surveys of the school grounds, researching the species native to the area and through guest speakers explaining some of the biodiversity in the area. For the topic of biodiversity and light pollution, I actually think that one of the best ways to engage children would be through the use of a nocturnal wildlife camera or cameras. A number of cameras could be set up in the grounds of the school itself. I work in a school with a lot of green areas including a forest school section and an area of grassland given over to native wildflowers and rewilding. By setting up a motion-activated camera to capture wildlife in the school grounds, children can be engaged to consider the variety of species that are native to their locality. The use of such a camera at night also opens up the question of light pollution and its impact on local wildlife. Children can perform a survey of light pollution near their own homes and then see the impact on local wildlife via the footage obtained from the wildlife camera. Children can directly see the impact of light on moths and other nocturnal insects. Ideally, they might see the impacts on some small nocturnal mammals in the school grounds as well. This can be supplemented with additional child-lead research into the species of most interest to them so that they can learn more about the specific impacts of light pollution on those species.
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I grew up in a rural part of county Waterford where light quality at night was relatively good. Even in this setting, areas of the sky were visibly polluted by the light from nearby towns but stars were very visible during clear nights. I now teach in a suburb of Dublin which is quite built up and which experiences tremendous light pollution relative to the area in which I grew up. In order to engage learners in this topic, it is first important to recognise that the level of light pollution they are growing up with is what they perceive to be normal. It would be beneficial to give them some level of experience of what they should expect to be able to see on a clear night so that they can recognise the high level of light pollution to which they are accustomed as being abnormal. Some children may be able to share first hand accounts of being able to see the night sky clearly when on holidays in more rural parts of Ireland or abroad. A more immediate way of impressing this point on children would be to do an experiment in the classroom to indicate the level of light pollution. By darkening the classroom and using a projector, a good simulation of a clear night sky could be created. Various levels of artificial light can be introduced to demonstrate the impact on the visibility of the night sky. For example, are the projected constellations as visible with lamps lighting in the room? This would give an indication of how much visibility is being lost due to street lamps in the children’s local area. As a follow-up activity, children could be encouraged to make a composite photograph of the night sky in their area using clear photographs of the night sky from areas with low light pollution – the composite could show local landmarks in the foreground and a very clear image of the night sky in the background to demonstrate the level of visibility that should be possible.
Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be in 2024- 2025
By consulting a guide for the visibility of phases of the moon, it would seem that the first quarter of the moon will be visible in the morning times in September 2004. I would plan to do a lesson where children explore the factors influencing the visibility of phases of the moon – the relative positions of the sun, earth and moon. Children could get a hands-on feel for this by recreating the phases of the moons with models – balls for the earth and moon, a light source for the sun. This would prepare them to make observations of the first quarter of the moon during the month of September. Children would first be in a position to identify the specific phase that was visible to them based on the learning they had done in the classroom. They could then note any features that are visible at this time. Later in the year, in early December, the New Moon would be visible early in the school day and this could provide an opportunity to revisit the topic and draw a contrast between what was observable during September and again during December when a different phase was visible.
Construct a sun-dial:
I think constructing a sun-dial would be a really engaging STEAM activity for almost any class in my school. Sixth class could get huge amounts of curricular integration from this as it incorporates History (the use of sun-dials by past civilizations), Geography (the impact of the weather), Maths (time) and more, not to mention the core elements of STEAM itself.
In our school, there is a flat, open area alongside the yard: I would select this as a site for the sun-dial and ask sixth class to research and consider the challenges and opportunities of this site (its open access to sunlight at all times of the day, siting the sun-dial away from the shade of the school building, etc). Children could then consider the material requirements of the sun-dial – it would have to be sturdy enough to stand up in the wind and durable enough to survive the elements. The sun-dial could be installed and children could make measurements every hour during school time and mark out the positions indicated by the sun-dial for 9 a.m., 10 a.m., etc. This would be a great activity to revisit at different times of the year to see how the sun-dial is affected by the angle of the sun and its position during different seasons.
