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Thank you for the suggestions Rachael, I didn’t consider any classical music while making my list but it is a lovely link, the music would make a lovely soundtrack while possibly working on some art on the same topic.
Assignment 5: Consider how many songs/poems/art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky?
Songs:
Catch a falling star, Moon River, Fly me to the Moon, Starman, What a wonderful World, Sign of the times.
Poems:
The Moon, Silver, A million little diamonds, Stars.
Art:
The starry night, Starry night over the Rhone, Nocture in Black and Gold,
Books:
Papa, please get the moon for me, Kittens first full moon, Moonshot, Zoo in the sky, How to catch a star.
My favourites from the list are The Moon by R.L. Stevenson, I love the imagery and there is so much you could do with a class to expand upon the poem. My other favourite is the book How to catch a star by Oliver Jeffers as I used to read it to my children when they were small and it was a firm favourite and again you could get lots of ideas for working with your class from it. The illustrations are also very beautiful. This would be lovely to work on for art, literacy, science and would also be an opening to the authors other books for those pupils who have not yet come across him.
I agree, we don’t have a bug hotel but we do have some bat boxes now installed on trees at the edge of the school grounds. The children have also been asking if a pond might be possible, we are currently doing lots of work on developing our school garden, we have plenty of space and I think incorporating a small pond into it would be a great way to encourage some wildlife we might not ordinarily see.
Assignment 4: How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.Lesson Introduction: Explain biodiversity, introduce important vocabulary, identification of biodiversity in the local area(what can pupils identify independently).
*As the study of bats is already on the schools 2 year SESE cycle at the moment, I would teach this lesson after the class has completed the lessons prepared on bats, this way the pupils have good background knowledge on characteristics of bats and will feel connected to the following lesson.
Lesson:
Show 2 pictures side by side, one dark sky and one bright sky.
1.Ask the pupils which place a bat would rather be?
2. Ask could too much light cause bats and other wildlife any problems?
Next ask the children to conduct a survey in groups , time the activity(10 minutes), to name as many living things as they can in our school grounds(keep a tally). Provide a simple worksheet, listing various plants and animals known to be in the locality.
Refine this research once data has been gathered by each group and create a graph displaying how many plants, birds, insects etc they have managed to find.
Also list the habitats you found the above listed plants and animals in.
Now discuss light pollution, ask children to observe street lights, security lights as part of homework in conjunction with this lesson. Do you notice if these lights attract any creatures, eg. Moths? If so, how will this attraction to light impact the moths and then how will this impact the bats ? The moths are a food source so would this have a positive/negative impact?
Return to our previous lesson(Module 3) concentrating on our local football pitch, discuss what impact the floodlights may be having on nearby wildlife. Is there anything we can do as a community to lessen this impact? The children could create a plan together and write to or invite local club members in to discuss their findings.
Assignment Q.1 Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
3rd/4th Class
Lesson: How does light pollution affect our local area?
Pupils should be able to: Understand what light pollution is, identify different sources of light pollution in their local area, explore how artificial light affects people, wildlife and the night sky and collect evidence and suggest ways to reduce unnecessary light pollution.
Introduction:
Show photos on IWB in a split screen of:
1. City at night/ a rural sky full of stars.
2. Brightly lit streets.
3. Floodlit sports pitches(there is one beside our school)
4. Houses/businesses without outdoor sensor lights.
Questions: Where would you rather look at the stars?, Have you ever noticed you see more stars in some places?, Do you know what lights might stay on all night in our community?
Main Lesson:
Explain what exactly light pollution is.
Then introduce the 4 types: Sky glow, glare, light trespass and clutter.
Follow these types with examples of as many as possible in our local area.
Activity: Light Pollution Detectives.
Class to be divided into groups.
Each group is provided with a simple map of the locality.
Ask the pupils to mark places on the map where they think there might be lots of artificial light e.g. housing estates, football pitch, shop, church, community centre, pub, post office etc.
Ask if they know which places might stay lit up all night, which lights are necessary and which lights could be reduced or turned off altogether.
Follow up activity: For homework each pupil could complete a night time observation sheet with an adult. The following questions could be included:
1. How many stars can you see?
2. Can you see the moon?
3. What lights are nearby?
4. Can you hear any wildlife e.g. birds or bats?
5. Are any lights shining into peoples homes?
Take pictures or draw what you notice.
Link with Geogrpahy(mapping) and Art(chalk night sky pictures).
I love your idea of comparison Niall. It made me wonder if my class could make this work with another part of Europe. We have been an Erasmus school for the past few years and this has allowed some pupil trips to Spain and France so far, both schools visited were much more urban than ours, we are a rural school in CO. Wexford. I am thinking if we could set up some Zoom meetings with at least one of the schools we have already teamed up with it could make for an interesting study.
I love the Stellarium idea, its very interactive. I really like the fact the tools could be used on the IWB, making it really interactive for the pupils, using the grid systems etc. I also feel it could be adapted to any age group and I think all pupils regardless of class would love learning the names of stars and constellations. It would also really lend itself to homework and parental involvement.
Question 3: Plan to observe the moon
Classes: 3rd-6th
Strand: Energy and Forces
Strand Unit: Light
Skills: Questioning, predicting, investigating, observing, recording, analysing, communicating.
Materials: Images of the moon, moon observation record sheets, calendar, pencil/paper.
Introduction:
Introduce moon vocabulary(what is already known), discuss and display different moons and associated vocabulary.
Display photographs of the moon on IWB:
What do you notice:
1. Does the moon always look the same?
2. Why might it change?
3. Have you ever seen the moon during the day?
Record ideas and answers, do not confirm correct/incorrect answers and use this as a basis to explain that scientists make observations over time before reaching a conclusion.
Investigation:
Explain to the children that over the course of a month approximately the class will be moon scientists/detectives.
1. Decide when we will obderve, what we will record and how often we should observe?
Ensure everyone is aware we would have to observe 2-3 times per week for accuracy purposes.
Create an observation template:
This should be done in collaboration with the pupils, with everyone agreeing on what needs to be included. E.G. Date, time, weather, moon visibile- yes/no, drawing the moon, describing the shape, explaining where it was in the sky.
Discuss why scientists record the date and time.
Reflection:
1. What will we notice after 4 weeks?
2. Will the moon always be in the same place?
3. Will everyone see exactly the same thing?
Record predictions.
Finally:
Observe whether pupils can ask scientific questions, suggest fair ways to collect information, record their observations accurately, explain why repeated observations are important.
Collect all observation sheets: These can be compiled into a class booklet.
As a follow on and to make connections with other subjects we could ensure for maths we work on time(calendars), data for graphs, space/moon art activities.
Observing and recording the suns position:
Objectives:
1. Observe the movement of the sun across the sky.
2. Record the direction of sunrise and sunset.
3. Collect and organise observational data.
4. Recognise patterns in the suns changing position over time.
5. Explain that the Earths rotation causes daily movement of the sun, while the earths orbit and tilt cause seasonal changes in where the sun rises and sets.
Materials needed:
1. Compass or compass app.
2. Observation chart,
3. Pencil.
4. Cardboard.
5. Camera or tablet.
6. Schoolyard.
Activity 1: Choosing a landmark.
Children to identify landmarks e.g. tree, flagpole, church steeple, buildings.
These will help estimation of where the sun rises and sets.
Activity 2: Sunrise and Sunset observations.
Some observations will need to be made from home
Activity 3: Midday Sun position
During school students can observe where the sun is by using shadows.
Record:
1.Date
2.Time
3. Length of a sticks shadow.
Direction of the shadow.
4. Weather.
Students will notice:
1. Shadows move
2. Shadows change length
3. The sun appears higher or lower depending on the season.
Activity 4: Shadow stick investigation:
Place a 1m stick vertically in the ground.
Every hour:
1. Trace the tip of the shadow.
2. Label the time.(Could use yard chalk)
Students will see the shadow:
1. Move in a curve.
2. Is longest in morning and evening.
3. Is shortest around noon.
Recording Sheet:
Sunrise, Midday Sun, Sunset.
Discussion Questions:
1. Did the sun rise in exactly the same place today?
2. Is the sunrise moving north or south?
3. Did the sunset move?
4. Were todays shadows longer or shorter?
Extension Activity:
Students can create a class graph showing:
1. Sunrise direction versus date.
2. Sunset direction versus date.
3. Daylight hours versus date.
They will discover that:
1. The sunrise point gradually shifts along the horizon.
2. The sunset points also shifts.
3. These changes repeat every year.
Assessment:
Students can:
1. Maintain an observation journal.
2. Draw the suns apparent path.
3. Explain why the sun appears to move.
4. Compare observations made in different months.
Expected learning outcome:
By the end of the investigation, students should be able to explain that:
1. The sun appears to move from east to west each day because the earth rotates.
2. Sunrise and sunset do not occur at exactly the same point on the horizon throughout the year.
3. The changing sunrise and sunset positions are caused by the earths tilted axis as it orbits the sun.
This lesson can run with an investigation time of 4-8 weeks which allows students to identify patterns from their own observations rather than being told the answers.
I would teach this lesson to 3rd/4th but it could be adapted for younger and older classes also.