[Fiona Sneyd]

It’s hard not to automatically think of Starry Night when you think of celestial matters! But I absolutely love the Oscar Wilde quote, this would make a fantastic inspired art lesson for senior children I think.

[Fiona Sneyd]

We are lucky to be located close to Dunsink Observatory in Ashtown, Co Dublin so I think this would be a great place to collaborate with to create/ host a dark sky event for our school.

First I think this would be a wonderful collaborative project for our More Able children across the school to work on together. They could use our school’s sensory room to get together to imagine what our dark sky place might look like, and how to prepare for it.

The children could organise a school event at the Dunsink Observatory one evening. Wonderfully, their website states that ‘weather permitting, visitors can view celestial objects through the historic Grubb Telescope’ which would be an added bonus for the evening. We would choose a clear night around the new moon for maximum visibility.

I would take some tips from Mayo Dark Sky Park’s website to help the children organise the event such as for a Stargazer’s Check List:
1. Bring binoculars (never point binoculars or any lens directly at the Sun)
2. Use only red torch light (your eyes need 20 minutes to adjust to darkness)
3. Download seasonal Star Maps and Planisphere
4. Wear warm clothes – hats, gloves, boots or sturdy shoes
5. Stargazing is best on your back – bring a blanket
6. Bring hot drinks and snacks
7. Play stargazing songs such as Starry Starry Night!

Finally, I would ask the group to prepare posters for around the school and for parents to promote the event, and encourage teachers to speak to their classes about light pollution and stargazing ahead of this!

[Fiona Sneyd]

The boys I teach would be fascinated in learning about bats and owls in particular. Firstly I would ask them what they already know about bats and how they exist in the world around us. I would be keen to see if they think bats are just in movies, or realise bats are actually around. I would ask why do we not see them if they are there, and use this to explore the idea of nocturnal animals. Then we would watch the RTE Gone Wild – Bats video and have them explore the concept of how bats
see and then ask them to consider how artificial lighting in our outside environment might harm their ability to see.

Then I would introduce Investigation 1 which they would do at home. To begin, the
starter question Will closing my eyes for 30 seconds help me to see better at night
? To help them with this I would ask, when you open your eyes during the night in your very dark room, can you see things right away? What about after a minute? Can you see then? Why? Then I would ask them to make a prediction about whether it is easier to see at night with or without artificial light/ will it be easier to find your way if you close your eyes for 30 seconds before starting walking?
Finally, I would ask them to go home and walk around their garden once dark, or with a parent walk a short route around the block once dark. I would ask them to notice what light sources are around them, and how that might impact bats and other nocturnal creatures. The next day we would come together again to share ideas and the children would be asked what they think could be done to address this.

[Fiona Sneyd]

How lovely to have that kind of setting for the children to play in. A wildlife camera sounds fantastic – each day would bring new observations to discuss 🙂

[Fiona Sneyd]

I agree Carrie, many of my pupils wouldn’t actually be aware they have probably never seen a properly dark sky! Some of the video resources and Google Earth would help to try to give them that experience, or maybe some might have seen it on an overnight flight.

[Fiona Sneyd]

I don’t think I would really understand what light pollution is had I not experienced a totally black sky on a number of occasions outside of Dublin.  Living in the city it’s easy to believe that it is dark outside, but having a baby in the house makes you notice the light creeping in around the window. Then it becomes hard not to notice the neon signs, advertising boards, drive throughs, floodlights and of course, traffic lights. If we cannot get a sense of darkness I wonder how this must impact all living creatures sense of day and night, and what the implication of that might be.

To engage my learners with this concept I would wait until the winter months, and ask them to have their parent take a photo, without flash, in an outdoor space at night. Many of my pupils live in apartments, in an urban area, so their photos would likely show quite a lot of light. Then I would take some rural night photos, and compare and contrast in class what they see. Then as a second part we would explore what is light pollution, and the next night I would ask them to go back to the same place and look at sources of light in the night sky. Finally, I’d ask them how light pollution could be improved in our local school area and explore some places on Google Earth at night to show how significant light pollution can be.

[Fiona Sneyd]

Using oreo biscuits is a great way for children to explore the phases and shapes of the moon while having a bit of fun!

[Fiona Sneyd]

I would introduce this topic to my class, 3rd class, as part of Space Week in October. Firstly I would ask the children if they had ever seen the moon? What times of the day have they seen the moon and what does it look like? I would choose children to come up and draw on the whiteboard what the moon has looked like when they saw it. Then we might discuss why it looks different some days than others, and explore why there are days when we can’t see the moon at all.
Then I would move on to asking them why the think the moon is important? Is it like the sun or different? Then I would show them “Paxi and our Moon: Phases and Eclipses” to stimulate their interest. Then I would each group four oreo biscuits and ask them to show me the moon phases. (one child should take a bite out of some oreos to illustrate the phases – more able children may be able to illustrate waxing and waning moon phases also)

I would start the project by bringing the children outside with iPads to take a photo of the sky at 17th October at 12:26 to for the full moon. Then we would follow the moon in its phases starting with 24 Oct at 09:03 to see the third quarter, then the new moon on 1 Nov at 12:47. Then the children would need to try to observe a first quarter moon before school on 5 Feb 08:02 and finally we could observe the full moon on 12 Feb after lunch at 13:53.

In a subsequent lesson I would use the ESERO 62 resource in the school hall to further build on their knowledge.

[Fiona Sneyd]

I would use the first activity in One Year on Earth – Understanding the Seasons Resource (ESA) to create a whole school awareness on Seasons and the environment around us. Our school is located very close to the Phoenix Park and Royal Canal so I would seek to utilise these wonderful settings to focus classes and year groups on depicting the seasons for everyone else.
Firstly, I would arrange a whole school assembly to explain what we were seeking to do as a school. I would allocate a season to cohorts such as 5th/6th – Autumn, 3rd/4th Winter etc. Then I would explain that we are going to use iPads to photograph, art materials to draw and checklists and notepads to observe.
I would arrange walking trips out into the local area in their allocated season. Each year group would go during a different season and together all would contribute to a thorough illustration and depiction of the four seasons as seen in Blanchardstown Village, which could be displayed along the corridors or in the school hall for parents to see too.

[Fiona Sneyd]

Great ideas here Patrick – I particularly like the idea of revisiting during different points of the year. This would really help children understand so many different things like the calendar and how the sun / earth position across the seasons.

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