Day and night

SPACE

Day/Night and Seasons

Starter: OUR SOLAR SYSTEM: Answer True or False

The moon goes around the Earth

True

The sun goes around the Earth

False

The Earth is Sphere

True

The moon is the same size as the Earth

False

From Earth the moon looks the same size as the sun

True

The sun is further away from the Earth than the moon

True

The Earth spins on an axis

True

Calendar months are different lengths because the moon

moves at different speeds

False

Learning IntentionTo understand how day and occur-

To understand why day and night occurs

To understand what causes the season

To understand the effects the tilt of the earth plays on the season and at the poles

Success CriteriaI understand how night and night occurs-I understand why day and night occurs- I understand what causes the season- I understand the effects the tilt of the earth plays on the season and at the poles

Day and Night

Clickview: Cycles and Seasons

Chapter – Start/Day and Night

Day and Night We have day and night

on Earth because of the Earth’s rotation – the earth spinning around and around. (1670 km/hr)

One way to remember which way the Earth turns is to remember "w.e. spin", which means the Earth spins from west to east

 ie anticlockwise

A view of day and night from space

The side of the earth facing the sun is in daylight.

The other side of the earth experiences night.

Clickview Video

Cycles and Seasons

Chapter: Seasons

Seasons

If the Earth was perfectly balanced, as it is in this animation, we wouldn’t have different seasons and the sun would always rise and set at the same time every day.

Seasons

Every part of the Earth would receive an equal amount of sunlight as the earth rotated.

As the earth rotates, everyone on earth experiences day and night.

It takes 24 hours for the Earth to rotate once.

But the Earth isn’t perfectly balanced, it’s tilted on axis of 23.5 degrees

The axis is an imaginary line between the north and south poles

Animation

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/flash/g/b/seasons.swf

…and the earth is also revolving around the sun.

The Tilt and its Effect

The tilt changes how much sunlight each part of the earth receives.

It is this tilt which makes our days longer or shorter and it’s what causes the seasons.

WHAT ABOUT THE POLES? In the Southern Hemisphere during summer,

the South Pole is in constant daylight and the North Pole is in constant darkness and the opposite occurs in the northern hemisphere.

Between summer and winter neither hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. This happens during Autumn and Spring.

In the summer, we’re tilted towards the sun.

Our days are longer and we receive more direct sunlight (which makes it hot) because the tilt causes more of the sun’s rays to hit the earth.

The longest day is called the summer solstice occurring in Australia on December 21st/22nd.

The diagram across shows the opposite solstice in the northern hemisphere