[Una Cashman]

Living in Dublin but having grown up in rural Cork I’ve also noticed how the night sky isn’t as dark and clear as it used to be. With more houses and apartments being built in my area the glow from streetlights and businesses has taken from the wonderful clear night skies I would still see when in Cork or in other rural parts of Ireland. I happened to be in Cork for the recent Northern Light show in May. We had a clear visible view of them unlike the city which didn’t because of many street and house lights. Many of the children I teach were interested to see the difference in what they saw through the camera and the photos I showed them. This was a great example of light pollution and how it affects the night sky.

Some discussion/activities I would carry out with my class:
• I love the idea of creating a light map of the area with my class and comparing it with other areas using the LightPollutionMap.info.
• I agree with many points on the upset to nocturnal animals, and the human circadian rhythms and it’s awful how nocturnal animals such as badgers, foxes, bats etc struggle with artificial light.
• Sleep disruption affecting the circadian rhythm – investigating the use of light therapy in countries that have very little light as well as the impact on peoples sleep and overall wellbeing especially in the darker winter months.
• Economic costs leading to higher energy consumption – a big topic with rising energy costs.
• There are many opportunities for class discussions to small group project work on these topics and using the wonderful resources available on this module.
• The children could create posters to promote the safer use of lights in their environment, for example in their area what is causing the artificial light, is it coming from houses not drawing curtains/blinds, are lights left on outside houses all night etc
• The Magic of Light packs from the ESA PRO6 resource would also be useful.

 

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