Topic: Day and night

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

Students of an elementary school (geography).

Core curriculum

Grade IV

General requirements

II. Skills and application of knowledge in practice.

3. Analyzing, describing, comparing, classifying, using various sources of information (eg own observations, research, experiments, texts, maps, tables, photographs, films, information and communication technologies).

Specific requirements

II. Orientation in the field. Pupil:

2. determines the main directions by means of a compass and the northern direction by means of a gnomon and indicates them in the field;

3. indicates in the field and on the diagram (or horizon) the places of east, west and the Sun's towering during the day and at different times of the year.

General aim of education

Students explain how the day and night sequence phenomenon arises.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• explain the causes of changes in the places of sunrise and sunset;

• indicate the height of the Sun at noon.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• 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

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

Realization

• The teacher discusses the phenomenon of the aftermath of day and night.

• The teacher announces a movie. He instructs his pupils to write a research question and a hypothesis in the form provided in the abstract. Then he plays the video and the students note their observations and conclusions. The teacher points the person who shares his insights and explains the reasonableness of the conclusions noted.

• The teacher asks students whether the Sun is towering all over Poland at the same moment and asks for justification for the answer. Supplements the statements of charges, straightens wrong statements.

• The teacher explains the consequences of the inclination of the Earth's rotation axis to its orbit (changing the place of sunrise and sunset on different days of the year).

• The teacher asks students to consider if they can accurately determine the sides of the world by observing the sunrise and sunset locations on any given day. Volunteers or students indicated by the teacher present their opinion and justify their position. The teacher comments on students' statements, corrects possible mistakes.

• Students carry out the interactive exercises checking the level of knowledge learned during the lesson. The teacher initiates a discussion during which the correct solutions for all the exercises performed by the students are discussed.

• Work of the whole class team. Students stand in a circle. The teacher encourages them to play: throws a ball or mascot to one of the students, saying the English word or notion learned in the lesson. The student gives the Polish equivalent, mentions another word in English and throws a ball or mascot to a friend or colleague.

Summary

• At the end of the lesson the teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer? If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

Homework

• Students use the compass to mark east and west at their place of residence and check where the sun actually rises and sets.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Day and night

Modern aircraft can travel with the same speed with which the Earth rotates around its own axis. As a result, you can fly for many hours and see the sunset the entire time!

You already know that the Earth’s rotation is the reason for the apparent movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere. In its apparent daytime journey, the sun first rises above the horizon, then rises higher on the celestial sphere, reaches its zenith, falls lower and finally sets.

The most commonly known consequence of the Earth’s rotation is the day and night cycle. Each time the Earth rotates around its own axis, a part of our planet’s surface faces the Sun – experiencing day, while at the same time another part of its surface faces away from the sun – experiencing night. The constant rotation of the Earth causes both zones (facing the sun and hidden in shadow) to move. At the same moment in time, it’s noon on one side of the Earth, while on the other side of the globe it’s midnight.

The inclination of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to its orbit is the reason why places where the Sun rises and sets change and why its height over the horizon at noon changes. As a result, the Sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west all over the world only twice a year (on equinox days). On the remaining days, sunrises and sunsets each day occur in different places.

• All periods of day and night occur at the exact same time in different places on Earth.

• The inclination of the Earth’s axis and its rotation are reasons for change in observed places where the Sun rises and sets as well as its height above the horizon during its zenith.