Unit Title: Spirit of the Seasons and the Night Sky

Unit Title:

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 studentcuriosity & for the students to be engaged & intrigued about what’s to come.

Finding Out: Activities designed to encourage questions & challenge existingPerceptions while helping students to make some sense of the topic.

Sorting Out: Provides students with the opportunity to sort the informationThey have gathered on the topic & for some processing of that information.

Going Further: Activities to extend and challenge.

Making Connections: Students draw conclusions andReflect on what they have learnt.

Taking Action:Making links between what theyhave 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 Out2. Stories in the Stars

Host Content AreasScience, Humanities, Civics & Citizenship

VELS Level 4

Teachers

Jennifer Clancy, Renee Atkinson, Ranny Kim,

Vaneeshree Eganathan, Caroline Hastings

Understandings

Unit 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 QuestionsKey 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…?