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A reflective piece on how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
Light Pollution in Dublin: Local effects
Skyglow: Dublin’s streetlights, sports grounds, advertising boards, and building floodlights produce a bright dome over the city that’s visible for kilometres. Even in nearby Wicklow or Meath, you can often see the orange halo over Dublin at night.
Reduced star visibility: From central Dublin, you might only see a few dozen stars, compared to thousands in truly dark areas like rural Donegal. The Milky Way is almost never visible without special photographic equipment.
Wildlife impact: Dublin Bay is a key site for migratory birds like Brent geese and waders. Artificial lighting along the coast can confuse navigation and alter feeding patterns. Bats in the Phoenix Park and along the Dodder River may avoid over-lit areas, limiting their foraging range.
Human health: Late-night artificial light exposure, especially from LED streetlights, can affect sleep quality for residents.
We would watch the NSW video ‘What is light pollution?’. We would use ESERO’s framework for inquiry questions to engage with questions like: Where are the darkest parts of Ireland? What sorts of objects emit light at night time? What can you name a natural source of light? Can you name an artificial source of light? Do all animals sleep at night? Can you have a shadow at nighttime? Why do we use lampshades in our houses? Why are streetlights important?
To conclude I would then ask my students to draw “Dublin without light pollution”. We would discuss what the sky would look like if we turned off unnecessary lights.
We would then create a class mural combining everyone’s work.
What a great idea to integrate art. It would really visualise the learning for the children and show the contrast between urban v rural.
Really like this idea to try this every morning. Can you imagine how excited they’d be every morning coming into school!
3. Create a short teaching resource using Stellarium
Observing the Moon with Stellarium – 3rd Class
Objective: Learn when and why we can see the Moon during the day.
Open Stellarium (online or using the iPad app). Set location to Dublin, Ireland.
Find Today’s Moon: Use the search bar to type “Moon” and click it. Notice its position in the sky.
Change Time: Use the time controls to move forward/backward through the day. Watch how the Moon moves and how its brightness changes.
Observe: Can you see the Moon when the Sun is up? What shape (phase) is it?
Record: Draw the Moon’s shape and write the time you saw it in daylight.
Discussion: Why do you think we can sometimes see the Moon in the daytime? How does its shape change over days?
Extension: Check again tomorrow and compare!
Hi Sadhbh,
I have infants too. I love this idea of the toys. The dinosaurs must look great too with their shadows!
Plan how your students could observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day.
Junior Infants – Dublin school
The Sun and a Sundial
Long ago, before watches and clocks, people used the Sun to tell the time. They made a sundial (a stick called a gnomon stands up, and the Sun makes a shadow.) As the Earth turns, the shadow moves, showing the time. In Ireland, the gnomon must point North. We would watch the ESERO video on how to make a sundial at home https://www.youtube.com/watch
Activity
We will make two sundials:Small Sundial: made from card, placed on the ground with arrow pointing South.
Large Sundial: stick in the playground at the correct angle for Dublin (~53°). Every hour, place a stone where the shadow falls and label it.
Observing and Recording
At sunrise (beginning of school day), midday (sos) , and sunset (going home time) we will look at the Sun’s position.The students will:
Draw the Sun’s place in the sky.
Draw the stick’s shadow and measure its length with a ruler.
Write the time beside your drawing.
Compare drawings to see how shadows and the Sun’s position change during the day.
We would discuss how we found that the Sun’s position in the sky changes during the day. In the morning, the Sun is low in the east and shadows are long. At midday, the Sun is high and shadows are short. In the afternoon and evening, the Sun is lower in the west and shadows get longer again. The sundial’s shadow moves in a circle, showing the time. The next lesson we would discuss all of the mathematical elements and connections to our lesson and create a whole class diagram to show our findings.
