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Love the Sky Diary. So important to ensure students feel they are all contributing and making connections.
1. Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?
As I teach in an urban school in a built-up area, I think this would be a creative, hands-on project for the children to engage in and give them a sense of ownership over their classroom.
I would begin by showing the children photos and short videos of Ireland’s real Dark Sky Parks, like Mayo or Kerry, so they understand what a Dark Sky place looks like and why it is special. Then, as a class, we would discuss why stars are easier to see in dark places and how light pollution can affect animals, plants, and even people.
Next, students would work in small groups to design their own Dark Sky place. They could draw maps, make posters, or even build simple 3D dioramas using cardboard and recycled materials. Each group would decide what their Dark Sky place needs—like safe paths, star-gazing spots, habitats for nocturnal animals, and special lights that don’t harm wildlifeHow you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity?I work in the city so I think it would be important, first of all, to explore and learn about the biodiversity in our local area first. I would elicit any prior knowledge from the children and start from there, discover what animals and plants they have seen and can recall. For homework, students could use nighttime observation journals, cameras, or smartphone apps on a parents phone to record different plant and animal species and email them to me. We could compile a book on Bookcreater.com to display these photographs or print them for a class display. We could compare areas with lots of light(roads, street lights, houses) with darker spots as a stimulus for a discussion on how this light may affect the biodiversity.
We could talk about how too much light at night can confuse animals, stop them from finding food, or make it hard for them to sleep. Afterwards, we could share what we discovered and come up with ideas for keeping our local area safe for wildlife.
Hi Emma,
I love the idea of connecting this with the biodiversity in your school garden and planting night blooming plants. A fantastic idea.
3. Planning a project for your class to take part in the International Dark Sky Association’s “Rising Star” Awards Programme.
I will be teaching third class next year so I would encourage group project work in this instance. In Week 1, students would learn about the night sky, drawing stars and constellations. I would read “The Darkest Dark” by Chris Hadfield as a stimulus.
Week 2, I would introduce light pollution using visual comparisons, preferably of our local area and a simple classroom experiment.
In Week 3, students would complete a night sky log at home, observing how many stars they can see.
Week 4 focuses on solutions—students create posters, poems, or videos showing how we can reduce light pollution.
In Week 5, we should share our project with the school community. Some students would be given the opportunity to visit other classes to present their projects. Others could work on an instagram post for the school page that would be posted displaying their findings and a voice over narrating it. Another group could work on a poster or book compiling their information too.Hi Claire,
I also work in a school in an urban area and have teamed up with other local schools for many projects over the years, The children always love the opportunity to collaborate with others and is extremely beneficial to their learning.
From my research I understand the autumn months are a good time to see Jupiter and Saturn because they are positioned well in the sky during that time of year.
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system and is best located after sunset, between 6@30 – 9:00pm, in the southeast direction.
Saturn is famous for its amazing rings made of ice and dust. Saturn is best located between 8-9pm in the southern sky.
We would choose a clear, bright evening to ensure viewing conditions are optimal. The Stellarium app would be a fantastic stimulus to use during a classroom lesson to grab the children’s attention and curiosity. Children would set the settings to Dublin, as this is where our school is located.
We would use the information gathered to create a class display made up of screenshots from Stellarium, observation notes from the students, drawings of the planets made by the students and interesting facts/ information they have learned throughout the course of their observation.
I would invite students to volunteer to visit other classes in the school to present some of their findings and information they have gathered. Alternatively, they could visit the principal’s office and make an announcement over the intercom and invite other students to look out for a specific planet if they have telescopes at home.
Hi Alison,
I love the idea of using Book Creator to compile your photos. Such a clever idea to integrate digital literacy.
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
I will be teaching Third Class next year. One way we could observe and record the positions of the sun during the day is by placing a stick vertically in the ground outside first thing in the morning. At different intervals throughout the day we could mark where the shadow falls on the stick with a marker. Children could also record this and the length of the shadow in their SESE copies.
This could be done over a few days to track consistency and at the end of the week could be used as a prompt for a class discussion (e.g what patterns do you notice? Predictions about changes depending on seasons etc)
This would create the opportunity to introduce directional language too.
We could also create a class display in the classroom, a big poster with shadow marks, compass directions and students drawings presented.