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Some brilliant ideas here and a great variety so you have plenty to choose from. I will be definitely taking note and using these when the time comes, thanks.
Great idea to use the local facilities to your advantage and the children’s benefit. Love the the thought of experiment so the children are engaged with hands on and experienced based learning, all contributing to the children connecting with biodiversity in their local area.
Love the idea of the children working at home and getting someone from home involved so they know what they are learning in school. Great idea for the children to connect with their local environment and try make improvements to tackle light pollution, keeps it very engaging.
Some great detail here about observing times. Very nice idea to use with class with all the information to provide to the children to keep them on track and engaged. The tips are very helpful also.
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?
Prior to observing the moon, as a class we will learn about the phases of the moon and identify the names of each phase. The children can draw a simple image of the phases of the moon and label with a short description.
As a group we will plan to observe the moon at 2/3 different times throughout the day for a couple of days, ideally when skies are clear. The children can discuss in pairs and make predictions about phase of the moon they might see at different times eg 11am, 1pm, 3pm. The children share their estimations and reasons why. Hopefully a variety of different answers and reasons will be produced.
As a class we will go to an outside area and observe the moon, with binoculars or using stellarium to assist. The children observe, sketch the moon and record what time they observed the moon. We can then refer back to previous lesson and drawings of the phases and now label the phases that can be seen at the observed times.
This can be repeated for a few days and compare results that have been gathered.
Building on from previous lessons about biodiversity and light pollution, the children would share their prior knowledge on the topic of light pollution and what we can see when pollution is limited and the benefits of this to humans, plants and animals. We would identify the importance of dark skies and compare the richness of biodiversity between a dark sky area and light polluted area, highlighting the impacts of light pollution and we should try to help our local area limit this.
The class can create a communal Dark Sky place in the classroom if suitable or in the school. Using a tent or black tarp, this can be hung up to create a night sky affect. The children can display their prior knowledge from previous lessons and design stars, planets and constellations using glow paint to hang ceiling of the tent to mimic a night sky. This area can be used as relaxing zone for the children as they can sit in the tent observe the ‘Dark Sky’, which relates to benefits of the real Dark sky, allowing people to relax and reset. If children are having a difficult time in school and visit the area, an area they have all contributed towards.
If a success the children can share what they have created with other classes to try and encourage them to create one of their own. As a class we would revisit the importance of dark skies, identify the benefits for humans, plants and animals have these displayed beside the Dark Sky place.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
As a class we would discuss the term biodiversity and identify its meaning and the importance of biodiversity, highlighting the interdependency between humans and plants and animals. To engage the learners the children can participate in a scavenger hunt or real-life bingo.
The children can explore the Castle Park and identify the variety of plants and insects they can find. They can record through drawings, descriptions or taking pictures where suitable. The class can then complete a similar scavenger hunt in an area that is affected by light pollution and record the results again. The teacher can display the results to the group to highlight the differences in an area rich in biodiversity and an area affected by light pollution.
As a final task the children can think of ways to help improve biodiversity in the affected area. The children can share their thoughts. One way this can be achieved in by constructing bug hotels or creating a suitable habitat in a show box and placing them in needed areas and also on school grounds. The children can revisit the new constructed habitat to experience the results through their own eyes.
1. Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this
As a class we can brainstorm what we think Light Pollution is. Children can share ideas after working in pairs of what they think light pollution can be defined as. Teacher can record the different opinions. As group work on identifying the sources/causes of light pollution and then identify the impacts of these causes. The impacts such as a difficulty to see stars at night, effects on wildlife and their chosen habitats, disrupting sleep on humans and costs of energy and electricity.
Or the teacher can call out a variety of sources that cause light pollution and some that don’t focusing on the local area, and the children participate in a walking debate (one side of the room ‘it causes light pollution/ the other side of the room ‘it does not cause light pollution’) eg. bright street lamps vs taking a picture of your phone with the flash.
The children can work in groups 2/3 to research the impacts of the identified sources on the local area. The children can then be given the task to think of ways we can reduce light pollution as individuals at home and also ideas that can be applied to the school, and advertising this around the school with posters and art.
Love the idea of using ICT and getting the children to use their strengths with technology and allowing them to present and work in groups to get them engaged to the task
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”
The children can place a chosen sturdy object in the yard, and make predictions of what shadows could be made from the sun at different times of the day, 9am, 12pm, 3pm. Predictions can be made through drawing and descriptions of the shadow.
The class can go outside at these times and record what type of shadow has been created by the sun. The children can compare the actual shadow to their predictions.
The children can then record with a sketch and description of the shadow, (long, short), acknowledge the position of the sun at these times, and discuss as a group why different types and shapes of shadows are made. the sun rises in the east, casting long shadows pointing west. At midday, when the sun is highest in the sky, shadows are shortest and point directly beneath the object. In the afternoon, as the sun moves toward the west, shadows grow longer again and point east. These observations help them discover that the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west.
The group can revisit the exercise the following day with a different and make predictions again, then highlight the improvements in their predictions from the first time.
