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Year 628 · The Earth in Motion
KO

Year 6 · fourth unit

The Earth in Motion

We seem to be standing still, but the Earth spins once a day and goes once round the Sun in a year. The Sun rising and the seasons changing are all because of that.

A child who has stuck a doll on a globe and is shining a torch on it

I stuck a doll on a globe and turned it

A board to run

Run a day. Watch the sky the doll sees, too.

A globe in the light of a torch, and a small doll

The constellations of winter cannot be seen in summer

A board to run

The Earth goes round the Sun. Run twelve months. The constellations in view at night light up.

The Earth going round the Sun, with the constellations outside

If the Earth turned the other way, where would the Sun rise?

A board to adjust

Change the direction of turning and the length of the day.

The Sun rising over the western horizon

From here we photograph the stars all night

What comes next in middle school · stars and the universe

If you leave a camera on all night

It is the Earth you turned above. Leave a camera open on the northern sky for a long time and the stars draw circles. Fifteen degrees an hour, one turn a day. And four minutes earlier each day.

Star trails drawn in circles round the Pole Star

I left a camera on all night

A board to adjust

Lengthen the time the camera is open. And try photographing again a few days later.

0 htime open
0°angle the stars turned

Back up to the basics