Section 5: From Earth to the stars - using models

Transcription

1 Section 5: From Earth to the stars - using modes

2 Contents 3 1. Using modes to expore night and day 3 2. Using stories and observation to think about the moon 4 3. Representing the soar system 5 Resource 1: Modeing night and day 6 Resource 2: Day and night questionnaire 7 Resource 3: Sun, Moon and Water 9 Resource 4: The moon and its reationship to the Earth and the sun background for the teacher 10 Resource 5: Soar system facts and figures 12 Resource 6: A scae mode of the soar system 13 2 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

3 Section 5: From Earth to the stars - using modes Key Focus Question: How can you use modes to hep pupis deveop their understanding of the universe? Keywords: modes; storyteing; stimuation; sun; moon; soar system Learning outcomes By the end of this section, you wi have: used different modes to hep pupis deveop their understanding of the Earth in space; used brainstorming, observation and mode buiding to expore pupis own ideas about the universe; expored storyteing as a way of encouraging pupis in the study of space. Introduction What is meant by a year? What shape is the Earth? What do we mean by the sun rising? Heping pupis understand how their home, the Earth, fits into the wider environment of our soar system is not easy because hands-on experiences and visits are not possibe. But we can use modes to hep our pupis understand the key scientific ideas. This section aims to deveop your skis in using modes to expore night and day, the phases of the moon and our soar system. These teaching modes incude physica modes (buit out of everyday materias), diagrams and computer simuations to hep your pupis understand the reative sizes, positions and movements of bodies in our soar system. 1. Using modes to expore night and day Pupis have their own ideas about the difference between night and day based on their experiences. These ideas do not aways agree with the scientific understanding. For exampe, in everyday ife, we tak about the sun rising or setting, which impies that it is the sun that moves and not the Earth. However, by using a simpe mode, it is possibe to chaenge and extend pupis ideas and hep them answer the question: Why do we have night and day? Activity 1 provides a simpe way of modeing night and day and Case Study 1 expores further ideas. You might ike to try the activity with your coeagues first, before trying it with pupis. This wi test your understanding and hep you decide the best way to use the mode in your cassroom. 3 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

4 Case Study 1: Modeing night and day Mrs Abdu, who works with Grade 6 pupis in a sma rura schoo in North Sudan, was exporing her pupis ideas about night and day. For homework, she asked them to note down the answers they got when they asked friends, carers and other community members the foowing questions: Why does it get dark? How does night and day happen? How coud you show this to others? The next day, pupis reported back what they had found out. Mrs Abdu showed them her way of modeing day and night. She used a cande as the sun and asked severa pupis, in turn, to come up and be the Earth and turn round sowy. As they turned, she asked them when they coud see the cande. Next, as they turned a second time, she asked them which was day and night and when was it dawn and sunset. They taked about their ways of showing night and day and compared these with Mrs Abdu s day and night mode and discussed how much their ideas matched. Mrs Abdu was surprised at the number of questions the pupis asked about night and day, but aso how the mode heped them to understand what was happening. Activity 1: Night and day Working with the whoe cass, ask them to te you what they know about how night and day happens. Accept and record each different idea and aongside each suggestion put the name of the person who suggested it. Once a the ideas are isted, ask the rest of the cass to show, by raising their hands, which idea they support and put the number by the side. Using Resource 1: Modeing night and day to hep you, mode day and night for the cass. Ask pupis to tak with their neighbour about how they woud now expain night and day, and record their ideas. To assess their understanding, use Resource 2: Day and night questionnaire. You might read out the questions or ask one pupi in each group to read out the questions to their group. Ask pupis to record their answers and then share the answers with them at the end. 2. Using stories and observation to think about the moon Peope sometimes refer to the moon when writing or speaking: they use expressions ike once in a bue moon, moonstruck and harvest moon. What expressions do you know that use the word moon? What expressions do your pupis know? You might make inks with iteracy work here. In Activity 2, your pupis observe in detai the shape of the moon over severa weeks. You then buid on these observations by using everyday objects to mode the changes in the 4 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

5 moon shape. This wi hep pupis to understand the pattern in the phases of the moon. Try the mode part of the activity yoursef before using it with the cass. Using traditiona taes about the sun and moon is another way to stimuate pupis interest. You coud use your own traditiona tae instead of the one used in Case Study 2. Case Study 2: Science, the moon and storyteing Mr Ogunanya decided to read a story to his Grade 2 cass about the sun and moon to stimuate their interest before studying the moon as a science topic. He used the story in Resource 3: Sun, Moon and Water, which taks about the sun and moon as being man and wife and iving on Earth. His cass enjoyed the story, especiay as Mr Ogunanya read it in a ivey way, using different voices for the characters. After discussing the story, Mr Ogunanya asked his cass to te him what the moon ooks ike in the sky. (He reminded the pupis never to ook straight at the sun as it coud damage their eyes.) He drew their ideas and then showed them a mode he had made of the phases of the moon to hep them understand why the moon has different phases. Activity 2: Phases of the moon Ask your cass, if they can, to ook at the moon in the evening when they go home and pay particuar attention to its shape. The next day, pupis draw the shape of the moon. Ask them if the moon is aways this shape? If not, why not? If not, what other shapes does it take? Are they aways the same? Is there a pattern to the shapes? Set up a roster of pupis to ook at the moon each night over severa weeks and record its shape on the chart you have prepared for this task (see the tempate towards the end of Resource 4: The moon and its reationship to the Earth and the sun). After a month, ask pupis to discuss and answer the foowing questions: How does the moon s shape change in a week? How woud you describe the shape(s) of the moon? Why does the shape change? Next, hep the pupis deveop their understanding by modeing the phases of the moon using the approach in Resource 1using bas or mud to see how the moon appears to change shape. Resource 4 gives you further information on the moon. 3. Representing the soar system Peope have aways been fascinated by space. Most pupis are interested in space, and the night sky is their first reaisation that there is more beyond our word. Exporing the soar system cannot be done through schoo visits. But by using books, teescopes, computers, the Internet and modes, you can show the vastness and detai of the soar system to your pupis. The size is something pupis find hard to grasp, but making a scae mode of the soar system wi hep. 5 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

6 In Case Study 3, a teacher uses a simuation on the computer, one kind of mode, to hep deveop pupis understanding. If you have access to a computer to do this, try the web ink isted at the end of Resource 4. The case study shows how the teacher aowed each group of pupis a turn on the computer and the rest of the cass worked on a different but reated activity. In the Key Activity, your pupis use modes to show the arrangement of the panets. You coud extend the mode of the soar system by asking pupis to find out how ong it takes for each panet to orbit the sun and to turn on its axis (day and night). Afterwards, refect on the activity. How did your pupis react to buiding modes? Do you think the modes heped them to understand more about the soar system? Coud you use modes in another topic what about buiding modes to show partices? Case Study 3: Using a simuation of the soar system Mrs Mucaba was working with her Grade 5 cass of 46 pupis in NguruPrimary Schoo exporing the soar system. She had downoaded from the Internet onto the schoo computer a simuation mode of the orbits of the sun, Earth and moon (see Resource 4 for an exampe). She wanted her pupis to find answers for some of the questions that they had asked about the sun, Earth, moon and other panets. The questions were isted on a sheet by the side of the computer and the groups of four/five pupis had to try and answer these as they ooked at the simuation. The rest of the cass were writing poems about their feeings about being part of the soar system, which they had discussed as a whoe cass at the beginning of the esson. Key Activity: Modeing the soar system Start with a cass brainstorm on the soar system. (See Key Resource: Using mind maps and brainstorming to expore ideas.) Record a their ideas and questions about the panets, sun, moons and so on. Share with your pupis the detaied information on the panets in Resource 5: Soar system facts and figures. Ask the pupis to work in pairs to draw a diagram showing each panet in order, giving some indication of the size of each panet. Each pair then shares their diagram with another pair to check their answers. Ask each group of four pupis to make a mode, using cay and mud, of one panet. If you have access to books and/or the Internet use these to give more information. Try to make sure the modes are a to the same scae. Then, use these mode panets to buid a mode of the soar system. You wi need to go outside to pace their modes in order. (See Resource 6: A scae mode of the soar systemfor hints on the sizes and positions of the panets in the mode.) Finay, pan an assemby with your cass. They shoud show their mode and te the rest of the schoo what they have found out about the soar system. Resource 1: Modeing night and day Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis 6 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

7 Why do we get night and day? You can use a simpe mode to hep you find out the answer to this question. You wi need: a arge ba to show the Earth a torch to show the sun Investigate Use the ba and torch to investigate why we get night and day see beow Expain how your mode shows the difference between night and day. Origina source: Oxford Science Programme Oxford University Press Resource 2: Day and night questionnaire Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis What do you think about the statements beow? Score each one according to the foowing scae. Then discuss your scoring with others. 7 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

8 I know it is true 1 I think it is true 2 I am not sure 3 I think it is wrong 4 I know it is wrong 5 1 At night, the moon bocks out the sun. 2 The sun revoves around the Earth every 24 hours to give day and night. 3 The atmosphere bocks the sun at night. 4 At night, the panets get in the way of the sun. 5 One haf of the Earth has day, whie the other haf has night. 6 The day and night cyce has something to do with the movement of the Earth. 7 The Earth moves around the sun every 24 hours to give day and night. 8 When we are facing the sun it is day and when we are facing away from the sun it is night. 9 It is dark at night because couds cover the sun. 10 The Earth spins round once every 24 hours to give day and night. 11 The moon is in a part of the sky where it is aways night. 12 The Earth turns around an imaginary ine from the North to the South Poe once every day. 13 The Earth spins on a ine through the equator once every day. 14 At night, the Earth turns to face the moon. ANSWERS to Day and night questionnaire 1 Fase 2 Fase 3 Fase 4 Fase 5 True 6 True 7 Fase 8 True 9 Fase 10 True 11 Fase 12 True 13 Fase 14 Fase 8 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

9 Resource 3: Sun, Moon and Water Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis Origina source: Nevin T (1995), Fire s Wid Dance 9 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

10 Resource 4: The moon and its reationship to the Earth and the sun background for the teacher Background information / subject knowedge for teacher The moon is a spherica body that is iuminated by the sun and refects some of its ight. But how is the moon paced in reation to the sun and the Earth, and how does it move? We know that: the moon is visibe at different times during the day and/or night; the time at which the moon is visibe is cosey reated to the shape and size of its bright part (phases); the moon is much ess bright than the sun and emits a negigibe amount of heat; the compete cyce of unar phases has a period of about 29.5 soar days; the moon is visibe, abeit at different times, for some part of each soar day (provided that it is not hidden by couds); the moon shows the same face to the Earth at a times; the moon is aways of the same apparent size; the apparent size of the moon is about the same as that of the sun; ecipses of the moon occur reativey rarey (no more than twice a year). Commentary The diagram on the next page wi hep you to make sense of how the moon moves around the Earth. It shows how we ony see different-sized bits of the moon at different stages in its orbit. It shows how the phases of the moon arise from its orbit around the Earth. The time between occurrences of the same phase (e.g. fu) is, on average, 29.5 days. You wi see that the moon aways presents the same face to the Earth: the moon rotates on its axis in the same time that it orbits the Earth, and in the same direction. Moreover, whenever you see a fu moon, everyone ese on the same side of the Earth wi aso see a fu moon. This appies to a new moon and to every other phase of the moon as we. Pease note: You wi need to reverse the sequence in the diagram for the southern hemisphere. 10 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

11 Person on earth sees everything inside the circe Moon number 1 = New Moon Part of the moon iuminated by the sun Part of the moon in darkness Tempate for pupis to record the shape of the moon Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 11 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

12 Week 4 Week 5 Usefu web ink If you are abe to access the Internet, the ink beow gives your pupis a chance to take part in an interactive tour of the southern hemisphere and has a wonderfu animation of moon rotation. Adapted from: Primary Science, Deveoping Subject Knowedge, Jane Devereux Resource 5: Soar system facts and figures Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis Axia rotation Time in orbit Diameter in km Km from sun (in miions) Mies from sun (in miions) Gravity (Earth =1) Mass (Earth =1) Density (Water =1) Mercury 56 days 88 days 4, Many craters on the surface make Mercury ook ike our moon. Because there is no atmosphere to keep temperatures steady, they fa from 425 C at midday to 180 C before dawn. It is made of rock with no water. Venus 243 days 225 days 12, The white couds prevent us seeing the surface but make it the brightest panet in our sky. It is sometimes caed the morning star or evening star. It is made of rock and very hot with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2). Earth 23h 56m days 12, Two-thirds of the Earth s surface is covered by water, which gives it its bue coour. It is the ony panet known to support ife. It has an atmosphere containing oxygen. Mars 23h 37m 687 days 6, It is the fourth panet from the sun and is commony referred to as the red panet. The rocks, soi and sky have a red or pink hue. Jupiter 9h 50m yrs 142, of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

13 The atmosphere has a stripy appearance with a giant red spot. It is a huge ba of the gases Axia rotation hydrogen and heium. Saturn 10h Time in orbit yrs Diameter in km Km from sun (in miions) Mies from sun (in miions) Gravity (Earth =1) Mass (Earth =1) Density (Water =1) 120,536 1, m A set of rings can be seen round Saturn, caused by miions of circing ice, dust and rock partices. Another gas giant made of hydrogen and heium. Uranus 10h 49m yrs 51,118 2,871 1, It appears buish-green because of the methane gas refecting sunight. It has a sma ring system and has an axis of rotation at right anges to other panets. Another gas giant. Neptune 15h 40m yrs 49,528 4,497 2, It appears buish and has a sma ring system. It is sometimes caed the twin of Uranus. The ast gas giant. Puto 16h yrs 2,284 5,913 3, Puto is primariy composed of rock and ice. It has three moons Charon, Nix and Hydra. On 24 August 2006, the Internationa Astronomica Union defined the term panet for the first time. This definition excuded Puto, and so Puto was added to the ist of minor panets. Adapted from: Primary Science, Deveoping Subject Knowedge, Jane Devereux Resource 6: A scae mode of the soar system Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis PLANET REPRESENTED BY DISTANCE FROM 'SUN' FOR YOUR MODEL* MERCURY 1 mm poppy seed 12 metres 12 centimetres VENUS 3 mm pin head 23 metres 23 centimetres EARTH 3 mm pin head 30 metres 30 centimetres 13 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016

14 MARS 1.5 mm mustard seed 50 metres 50 centimetres JUPITER 30 mm ba 167 metres 1.67 metres SATURN 30 mm ba 300 metres 3 metres URANUS 10 mm marbe 600 metres 6 metres NEPTUNE 10 mm marbe 900 metres 9 metres PLUTO 1 mm poppy seed 1.25 kiometres 12.5 metres N.B: On this scae, our moon woud be sighty smaer than a poppy seed and woud be 8 cm from the Earth. A the sizes and distances are approximations. For practica reasons, you may wish to use this shortened distance scae for your pupis mode, but you wi need to point out that the size of the panets is now disproportionatey arge. Return to Science (primary) page 14 of 14 Friday 23 September 2016