Topic: Time zones

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 (geography).

Core Curriculum

Grade VI – geography

V. Earth Movements: Earth in the Solar System; rotational and reciprocating motion; consequences of Earth movements. Pupil:

3) explains the relationship between the rotational movement and the voyage of wandering and towers of the Sun, the existence of day and night, the daily rhythm of human life and nature, the occurrence of time zones.

General aim of education

Students explain how to set time zones.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• explain what time zones are;

• indicate the reasons for establishing universal 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;

• geographical atlas;

• mini flip charts.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The instructor, referring to previous classes, asks the chosen student to determine the sunny time and date of the selected point on the map.

• 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 abstract themselves, paying particular attention to the illustrations.

• Participants familiarize themselves with the content presented in the interactive illustration. Then the teacher discusses the issues with the students.

• Volunteers solve interactive exercises No. 2‑4 on the class forum (on the interactive whiteboard). The teacher and the students discuss correct answers.

• The instructor recommends the pupils to do the „Task 1” and write in the notebooks countries lying in the same time zone as Poland. The selected person presents the results of his / her work and the students evaluate their correctness.

• Students independently perform interactive exercise No. 1.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to assess the level of their ability to define time zones with the help of mini flip charts (green card means very good, yellow - sufficient, red - insufficient).

Homework

• Develop a lap book containing issues learned during the lesson and bring your work to the next class.

• 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

Time zones

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 the 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 on various meridians?

If every meridian on Earth would impose the use of their solar time on watch owners living on this meridian, most of them usually would show a different time, and if traveling from west to east or vice versa – one would have to move the watch. To avoid this, it was agreed to divide the entire area of our planet into 24 time zones corresponding to all hours throughout the day. Thus we have established time zones which have a latitude of 15° and extends 7.5° east and west of the meridian considered central for the zone. The central meridians were assumed to be the zero meridian, 180° meridian and all located between them, being a multiple of 15°, both in the western and eastern hemisphere.

All European countries are in five time zones. In the meridian zone of 0°, called the universal time or the time zone of Western Europe, there is, for example, the United Kingdom. Poland belongs to the Central European time zone assigned to the 15°E meridian. When in the universal time zone is 12:00, in the zone in which Poland is located (between 7.5°E to 22.5°E), it is 13:00.

• In order to unify the indications of watches in a given area, time zones have been introduced on the entire globe.

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