Topic: Official time

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Target group

6th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

General aim of education

Students will explain the reasons for entering official time

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• explain the reasons for entering official time;

• explain the reasons for changing the summer and winter time.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• The teacher in the previous lesson asks pupils to prepare a minimum of 6 playing cards Question/Challenge from topics related to solar time, setting dates and time zones..

Introduction

• The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

Realization

• The teacher asks students to read the content of the abstract and familiarize themselves with the interactive illustration. Then he divides the class into two groups. The task of each group is to add 4 cards from this topic to the game Question / Challenge and choose from all 30 cards divided into two sets: Question and Challenge. Each group additionally receives cards for sets from the teacher..

• Students start the game Question / Challenge
  Game rules:
  Players themselves decide on the selection of cards arranged on two piles. By selecting the Question tab, after receiving the right answer, they receive one point, after losing the wrong one they lose one. Choosing the Challenge card, having accomplished the task rule, receives three points, losing two incorrectly. The team with the highest number of points wins

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Summary

• At the end of the class, the teacher asks the students questions:

  • What did you find important and interesting in class?

  • What was easy and what was difficult?

  • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

  Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Official time

When the radio reports that it is 12:00, we know that you can hear the same message all over Poland. However, many residents could say that the sun is not at that moment at it’s highest point of its journey through the sky. Why is this happening? Why is there the same time in all of Poland when the Sun is towering at different times?

Time zones have not proved to be the perfect solution to all problems. State borders do not run according to the boundaries of zones. For example, if we strictly adhere to the boundaries of time zones, then part of Poland located east of the meridian 22°30'E should be included in the Eastern European time zone. So it would be an hour later than the rest of Poland.

In this situation, it makes no sense to introduce a different time for a smaller part of a given country and cause confusion associated with the need to change watches. A decision was therefore made to enter official time, uniform throughout the country. Although the eastern borders of our country lie in the Eastern European time zone, they were officially included in the Central European time zone, which has a meridian 15°E spanning the western boundaries of Poland. The governments of many other countries did the same. Therefore, in many areas of the world there is a different time than it would result from their location in a given time zone.

• There are 24 time zones with a width of 15 °.

• In order for the clocks to show the same time all over the country, the official time valid throughout the whole country is introduced.

• In many countries, summer and winter time are distinguished.