Dark Side of Light - Light Pollution
▶Summary
The main objectives that we wanted to achieve were: - raising awareness on light pollution being a green issue that is relatively unknown to the public - improve students' scientific literacy by b...
▶Objectives
The main objectives that we wanted to achieve were: - raising awareness on light pollution being a green issue that is relatively unknown to the public - improve students' scientific literacy by bringing science to the classroom - we wanted our students to act as researchers to study the dark side of light - being socially inclusive aur students had to develop ways for their community to reduce the harmful effect of light pollution - increasing interdisciplinary approach in our schools when developing the topic - cooperation of Physics, ICT, Biology, English departments - carrying out international hands-on activities to study LP in depth thus improving the European dimenson in our schools.
▶Activities
We are proud of having implemented innovative activities (advanced STEM strategies), stage work awareness (featuring research, observation, evaluation), implementing digital tools (apps, platforms), collaboration and interactive engagement, critical thinking and problem-solving tasks to fight climate change through hands-on activities. Our particular activities were divided into three stages (Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3) in which each of the teams introduced a certain subtopic of light pollution which all teams had to develop later. Each of the stages started with an online meeting at which one of the partner schools was in charge of introducing a platform and tools for the partners to work with during the stage. Our work started with a kick-off face-to-face meeting where the partners discussed in detail the calendar of activities and made an introductory overview of the issue. The partnership finished with a final joint event called Astrotourism consisting of various hands-on workshops. The participant teachers designed lesson plans on light pollution which were amalgamated in a final product - Guidebook on Light Pollution. We carried out a parallel eTwinning project either.
▶Impact
Students developed competences to identify the harmful effect of light pollution, its sources and types. They got acquainted with LP and shared their understanding through informational PPTs, comics, posters, brochures, e-books, illustrations, board games. They did problem-solving when implementing the principles of responsible outdoor lighing in their prototypes, selecting a location for telescopes and doing telescope observations They applied advance STEM approaches: using Bortle scale to track night sky brightness, understanding the role of space telescopes, mapming artificial light, doing research on space radiation, spectroscopy and how stars are born. They did creative activities: animated greeting cards (GIFs, NASA WorldView images), inspiring videos on famous scientists (Powtoon). They applied digital tools: to track and simulate the orbit of the International Space Station, create space stories (DiSTARS), benefit from international platforms (Dark Skies Rangers, DarkSky), use online planetarium (Stellarium). They did coding with micro:bit (safe beach lighting, smart lighting). They celebrated together: World Space Week, International LED Light Day, Earth Day. More on our TwinSpac: https://tinyurl.com/4zw9r5nv