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Task 1
I would begin with a lesson about how light has changed our lives with the advantages and disadvantages associated.
I would ask the class to consider what the aztecs or those who built newgrange saw in the night sky and how they harnessed this. I would remind the class that we are not the only animals on the planet and get them to discuss the impact of artificial light on animal life. Get them to consider what would happen if they turned kn a light at night,how many insects would be attracted to it and what impact that would have on them.
Given the benefits of light and considering the impact I would then ask them how we could create a dark sky space and low impact lighting around our school/local park.
What impact would this have. They could draw their mass and present their ideas to the class. This could be extended to homework in asking the children to come up with a plan to implement at home.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
First of all I would recap with lessons on minibuses, arachnids and native species of animals covered. We would then learn about biodiversity through some of the links provided in this module and from David Attenborough clips and through national geographic kids.
Next I would get the children to list all the beasts they hope to see in a parkland and get groups to record any they see jn a hula hoop shaped piece of ground in 5 minutes. We would then change the environment eg more plant diversity or less and do the same recording.
Back in the class we could compare the two environments and discuss. Also a discussion on what we didn’t see and possible reasons why.
We could come up with a plan on how to improve local biodiversity in groups and present to the class and draw up an action plan.
We could then hone in on specific species and look at how light might impact them such as insects seasonality not lining up with plant seasonality due to artificial lights etc.
A project on how this might impact bats could then extend the learning.
I like how the comparison is made between different locations and their dark sky quality. Also highlighting the need for lighting and how this can be balanced would be a good discussion
Task 1 Light pollution in the local area.
First of all we would research light pollution globally with extracts from David Attenborough programmes,national geographical kids etc.
Then with the help of ict we could make it more localised and look at how our area looks on darksky.ie light pollution map.
Investigating sources of light pollution would be the next step.
I would then leave it open ended for the children to spend a week looking for areas they can identify outside of school that they class as light pollution and work on project works of alternatives or solutions. These can be discussed and put into an action plan to be submitted to a local representative.
I would link this in with health in science and she and rhe importance of quality sleep, the importance of protecting wildlife and our economy.
I would like to link this in with our planet spotting activities and explore the mayo dark sky park websites.
I love this idea of exploring each planet individually and it’s myths. This could be a very rich experience and inspire their creativity.
Task 1
I would start this lesson with activities from the esero website on sizes and scales of planets in our solar system.
In class we could research using the time and date.com website what planets are observable on what dates and the students can predict what they are likely to and what factors such as weather and environmental factors such as light pollution might impact our observations.
As access to technology might be a factor for my students I would ask them to draw what they see on a page for homework and we can discuss their drawings in class and compare.
To consolidate I would present the class with a selection of sizes of balls from marbles to basketballs a d to line them up in size and by distance in the yard relative to each other and then discuss why some are more observable to us than others, bringing maths into the learning and possibly historuc stargazers such as galileo.
Task 2 Sundial
I would do a lesson on shadows and stick a piece of lining paper on to a surface or desk if possible or go outside if more sun was needed. I would place a tall object by the paper so a shadow falls and have the children trace the shadow at different times throughout a single day. We would present these to the class and discuss.
The next day I would ask the class to imagine no electronic or battery devices were working. How would pur lives be different and how could we negotiate these priblems like people in our past had to? How would we know when it’s lunch time, break time and most importantly home time? The discussion would be steered to using shadows.
Once the connection had been made with recording time and we discuss sun dials, I would link this with fractions and get them to create twelve evenly spaced markings on a paper plate. We would observe where the shadow falls and make a real sundial for the school using a disk of wood.
We would then explore various points around the school and discuss why some might work better than others for tracking the sun. This could be revisited throughout the year to see if any observations are made as the seasons change.