Download Unit Title: Spirit of the Seasons and the Night Sky

Unit Title: Spirit of the
Unit Title:
Seasons and the Night Sky
Spirit of the Seasons and the Night Sky
Contents of Unit Plan
Unit Focus: Including Unit Duration, Host Content Areas, VELS details.
Unit Understandings: Purpose and desired learning outcomes.
Key Concepts: Major issues and big ideas at the centre of the unit.
Resources: Required for successful implementation of unit.
Assessment: Method of assessing student engagement and learning.
continued…
Implementation
Tuning In: Introducing & providing opportunities to develop student
curiosity & for the students to be engaged & intrigued about what’s to come.
Finding Out: Activities designed to encourage questions & challenge existing
Perceptions while helping students to make some sense of the topic.
Sorting Out: Provides students with the opportunity to sort the information
They have gathered on the topic & for some processing of that information.
Going Further:
Activities to extend and challenge.
Making Connections:
Students draw conclusions and
Reflect on what they have learnt.
Taking Action:
Making links between what they
have learnt & how to apply to
real world situation.
Unit Focus
* Exploring student understandings
of the earth, the moon & sun
* Diurnal motion and apparent
movement of sun & stars
* Concept of day, night &
the rotation of the earth
* The causes of seasonal
changes
* How we consider the affects
of the sun & the seasons on
how we create our homes
& cities
* Creative responses to the night
sky through the ages
Unit Duration
- Ten (10) lessons over three (3) weeks
- Including excursion to the Planetarium at Scienceworks for
educational workshops:
1. Spinning Out
2. Stories in the Stars
Host Content Areas
Science, Humanities, Civics & Citizenship
VELS
Level 4
Teachers
Jennifer Clancy, Renee Atkinson, Ranny Kim,
Vaneeshree Eganathan, Caroline Hastings
Unit Understandings
Understandings
* Knowledge of our solar system helps us to
understand the world we live in.
* We use systems and models to help organize our
knowledge of the solar system.
* The study of the stars is something humans have
always done, from the Sumerians, Babylonians,
Egyptians and ancient Greeks, our own
Indigenous people, scientists and star-gazers today.
* Knowledge of the sun can help us create more
sustainable ways of living, eg: designing sustainable
and energy efficient housing.
Key Questions
Key Questions
- Why do we look to the stars to make sense of
life on earth?
- When did we start looking to the stars and what
have we learned?
- Why do we have the Southern Cross on our
national flag? Is it relevant?
- What are some of the brightest stars and their
constellations? How can we easily identify them?
- How do scientific models help us to understand
movement and motion of the planets in space?
- What causes the seasons and why do they
differ across the globe?
- How can we use our knowledge of the sun’s
path and angles to design environmentally
sustainable houses?
Key
Concepts
* Place & Space
* Beliefs & Values
* Invention & Design
* Indigenous Beliefs
* Patterns & Models
* Culture
* Energy
* Environment
Resources
Excursion to ScienceWorks / Planetarium.
Collect visual resources:
- Southern Cross constellation
- Indigenous artist paintings of night sky
- Scienceworks online exhibition
- Van Gogh’s Starry Night at Arles
- Light Years Photography & Space exhibition
- Contemporary houses with inadequate energy
design
- Video: The Curse, Namorrodor and the
Morning Star
- ABC online: Dust Echoes interactive
Collect text based resources:
Collect myths from the around the world about
the Pleiades including Indigenous, Egyptian,
Japanese and South African. Incorporate texts
including: Spirit of the Night Sky by Laksar Burra
(southern skies and the Aboriginal stories), Stars
of Tagai by Nonie Sharp (southern skies and the
Torres Strait Islanders)
Poems by William Blake and Lucretius on the
‘Nature of the Universe’ and theories of Galileo.
Assessment Routines & Records
Reflective Journals
Skills Checklists
Self Assessment Criteria
Analysis of artworks
Written responses to key questions
Learning Logs
TUNING IN
Activity 1 - What does the universe look like? (Literacy)
Use visual resources inspired by the solar system. Images created by
artists / peoples throughout time and across cultures. Students
undertake a visual literacy exercise. They reflect on ideas &
interpretations of the universe. What feelings do the images evoke?
Students create a poetic response to the visual stimulus.
Activity 2 - Touring the Solar System (Literacy)
A tour of the solar system. Teacher takes students on a virtual tour of the
solar system using simulation software that display stars, constellations,
planets etc as wells as simulating potential future and real past events.
Students create postcards from space and use them to decorate the
classroom.
FINDING OUT
Activity 3 - How far to the moon? (Maths)
Students use modelling clay to investigate and understand concepts of
distance and size in space. The activity encourages estimations and
demonstrates the relative size of the Earth and the Moon, the ratio of the
Earth’s diameter to that of the Moon and the distance between planets.
Maths concepts include number, measurement, scale and ratio. Students
make predictions and then determine the accuracy of their predictions.
Activity 4 - Planets in motion (Science / Humanities)
This activity looks at the earth’s rotation and how stars (incl the Sun)
appear to rise in the east and set in the west (diurnal motion). The activity
uses a black umbrella and star stickers. The turning umbrella
demonstrates how the Southern Cross never sets at our latitude. Guided
discussion will aid further understanding. Students can find out more about
the Southern Cross and discuss what it represents to Australians. Students
learn how the Southern Cross can be used as a navigational tool.
SORTING OUT
Activity 5 - Stargazing (Science /Maths)*
In this activity the teacher assigns each child a star to observe and record its
movement. The teacher can select appropriate stars by accessing the
ScienceWorks website which contains details of what’s in the sky tonight.
Students will observe and record the movement of the star at different time
intervals (e.g. 7,8.9 & 10 pm) using a common astronomical measurement
that uses the hand and outstretched arm. (brief demonstration)
Activity 6 - The Path of the Sun (Science / Maths)
Students create a model which represents the path of the sun on four
special occasions of the year in the Southern Hemisphere – Summer
Solstice, Winter Solstice and the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes. The model
will also show the different angles produced as a result of the path of the
Sun. Maths concepts – angles.
GOING FURTHER
Activity 7 - Tell Me a Story
(Lit/Hum)
Look at the constellations Orion and Scorpius and
other seasonal constellations and model them on
the classroom wall with a torch and the lights out.
This will lead to a discussion on recognisable
constellations in the night sky and how stories have
developed around these. Students will learn about
indigenous stories behind the constellations
through videos and texts. They will then create
their own ‘mythical’ story about a constellation.
Activity 8 - Across This Planet (Lit/Hum)
In groups students look at myths surrounding
Pleiades from countries around the world.
After reading the stories students graphically document the main events in the
stories and answer a number of questions looking at characterization, gender roles,
symbolism, and cultural beliefs. Groups present their findings to the class.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Activity 9 - Harnessing the Sun (Maths)
Students use their understanding of the relationship
between the movement of the Sun and its shadows to
design a contemporary, sustainable, solar-aware
home.
Their creative designs will need to consider how to
use the position of the Sun in Summer and in Winter
to best cool and heat the house. Particular focus on
maths concepts of angles, scale and measurement.
TAKING ACTION
Activity 10: Design Star!
(Literacy)
Students study pictures of contemporary houses and highlight examples of
houses with aspects of poor energy design (e.g. Metricon, Simmonds,
Macquarie). Based on what they have learnt, students are to write to the
Planning Minister about improvement to the design guidelines.
Questions…?