Title: How does the Sun illuminate the Earth?

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.

Lesson plan elaborated by: Zyta Sendecka

Target Group

Pupils of the sixth grade of primary school (geography).

Core Curriculum

Grade 6 - Geography

V. Earth’s Movements: Earth in the Solar System; rotational and revolutionary motions; consequences of Earth movements. Pupil:

6) shows the relationship between the Earth's rotation and its climate zones, and the zonal diversity of climate and landscapes on Earth.

The general aim of education

Students demonstrate the relationship between the Earth's rotation and its climate zones.

Criteria for success

• you can explain what effect the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis has on the creation of its climate zones;

• you will point out on a globe the Earth's climate zones and their borders.

Key competences

• Communication in the mother tongue;

• Communication in foreign languages;

• Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology;

• Digital competence;

• Learning to learn;

• Social and civic competences.

Methods / techniques

• work with the text;

• workshop method;

• individual activity;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• tablets / computers;

• chalkboard globe and torch

Lesson phases

Introduction

The teacher gives the subject and the purpose of the lesson in a language that the student understands as well as the criteria for success.

Realization

1. Students, working in pairs, point out on a globe; the equator, the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, the Arctic Circle, the Antarctic Circle, the North Pole and the South Pole.

2. The teacher asks the pupils to familiarize themselves with the content on the abstract and explain what effect the tilt of its axis of rotation has on the formation of the Earth's climate zones.

3. The teacher and the students analyze the interactive illustration depicting the climate zones of the Earth.

4. Students independently perform interactive exercises.

5. The teacher asks volunteers to use a flashlight to light selected zones on the chalkboard globe. Students name them, determine their location and describe known features.

Summary

The teacher asks students to finish the following sentences:

• „In today's lesson, I learned...”.

• „I would like to know more about...”.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

How does the Sun illuminate the Earth?

We already know that the length of day and night changes in Poland. Did you know that there are places in the world where the day and night are the same all year long? Do you know that at the poles for half a year the Sun does not go down, and for the next six months it does not rise at all?

Travelling around the Sun with a constant tilt in the axis of its rotation causes the Earth’s surface to be illuminated in different ways. On this basis, five climate zones on Earth can be distinguished. The zones have borders- tropics and polar zones, which are marked on maps and globes.

The most strongly illuminated and heated areas by the Sun are the tropics, including the centrally located equator that crosses it. In the tropics, almost everywhere, twice a year, (on the summer and winter solstices) the Sun rises to its zenith. When this happens, it lights and heats the surface of the Earth the strongest. Only at the borders of the tropics does the sun rise to its zenith once a year. Days and nights on the equator always last for 12 hours, and in the entire tropics the differences in the duration of them are small. Two temperate zones extend between The Tropic of Cancer and The Arctic Circle (in the northern hemisphere) and between The Tropic of Capricorn and The Antarctic Circle in the southern hemisphere. In these zones the Sun does not reach its zenith, and every day the duration of day and night changes.
The least illuminated and heated are the two polar zones the borders of which are the Arctic and Antarctic circles. In these zones there is a phenomenon called polar day, when for a long period of time the sun does not go down and glow low over the horizon 24 hours a day, and also polar night, when for a long period of time the Sun does not rise at all.

• The tilting of the Earth's axis causes the creation of Earth’s climate zones.

• We can distinguish 5 climate zones on Earth: the tropics, two temperate zones and two polar zones.