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If I was to create a school project to collect piseógs/ stories and traditions or the night I would start by inviting a guest speaker in to share some stories with the children. I hope that this would be a good starting point and a way to get their interest.
I would begin the project in October and tie it in to Halloween as a lot of Halloween traditions are based at night time. The children could explore the origins of the carved pumpkin and celebration of Samhain in Irish history. I would then explore night traditions and stories from other countries.
The children would then be given a project to collect piseógs, stories and traditions from family members or neighbors. We are lucky to have children from many countries in our class so I would hope that we would gather some different and interesting stories to do with the night sky.
The children will be able to present what they find as a story, art maybe a fact file about a tradition they have learnt about. These will be displayed in the hall on the run up to Halloween for the rest of the school to look at and some of the class can present their findings at the end of term assembly.
I think that this project would be very engaging for my class. It can be tied in to many subjects including History, literacy, art and music.This is a great list. Van Goughs Starry Night paintings are perfect to connect to a night sky lesson.
To incorporate the needs of nocturnal species into out school biodiversity plan I would begin by having my classes complete projects on nocturnal animals which they could present at a school assembly. They could do research into which nocturnal animals are in the locality.
I would borrow a moth trap from a local group, the children will learn about how it works and we will set it up and leave it overnight at the school. The children will record what moths are caught before releasing them again. The moth trap uses light to draw the moths in so this would be a good way to introduce the children to the effects of light pollution on nocturnal animals. They could explore other sources of light in the school and how these might affect animals at night.
The children will then use what they learned to make suggestions to make the school more friendly to nocturnal animals like moths and these suggestions could be used in the biodiversity plan for the school.The school that I work in is located in a town but some of the students would be coming to the school from local rural areas. The town has a lot of light pollution from street lights, buildings and traffic while the children living in other areas would not have as much. This gives a great opportunity to explore the impact of light pollution affects different areas and for the children to share their own experiences of light pollution.
I would get the children to complete a survey of light pollution in their area and home. I think it would be interesting for the children to compare and explore the differences in light pollution from the children living in the town and those outside it. The children could also complete an art project to draw what they can see looking out their window at night, can they see the stars, just darkness, street lights, buildings etc.Create a short teaching resource using Stellarium/ WorldWide Telescope
I think that Stellarium will be a great resource in my classroom. I will begin by showing the children how Stellarium works and allowing them to explore using it. We will use it find out what planets can be seen in the nights sky a few nights during the week and the children will be asked to look at the sky for a few minutes each evening. By looking at the sky on Stellarium beforehand they will know what to look out for and what planets they are trying to find.
After teaching about the nights sky, planets, and stars I will give the children a project to do. In groups the children will use Stellarium to explore the nights sky on the date of their birth. I will have a worksheet designed to help them record what planets they see and draw some constellations that were visible on their birth date.I think there are lots of possibilities for activities and engagement with ESERO 30 Day and Night in the World. The children can explore how the sun is a source of light and how the earth’s rotation affects day and nighttime. They would use a globe and a lamp to explore what parts of the world are in darkness during our daytime. I would integrate this with art and get the children to create shadow art to explore how light creates shadows.
The children could look up and record the time of sunrise and sunset once a week and examine how these change throughout the year. They would calculate how many minutes it changes by each week. This would lead us to explore the equinox and winter solstice.
I thought that the Paxi video of day and night was very good and I would use it as an introduction and to engage the children in discussion.