Selecting and developing activities for lighting the Earth
Classroom Activity
for 5-11
Teacher Tip: Based on the Physics Narrative and the Teaching and Learning Issues
Ideas to emphasise here
- the relative location of astronomical objects
- how the astronomical objects are illuminated
- that we get information about astronomical objects from seeing
- that light has to travel from source to our eye so that we can see the source
- that both spinning and orbiting change what we are able to see
Teacher Tip: Work through the Physics Narrative to find these lines of thinking worked out and then look in the Teaching Approaches for some examples of activities.
Strategies for supporting learning
- draw on existing models of seeing
- make extensive use of well thought out questions to intrigue and to promote fruitful additional questions
- relate observations and evidence to assertions
- seek to explicitly challenge likely misunderstandings
- act out and talk through complex changes
Teacher Tip: These are all related to findings about children's ideas from research. The teaching activities will provide some suggestions. So will colleagues, near and far.
Avoid these
- explaining why we see the different phases of the Moon as this draws on a number of different ideas, and is therefore best left until later
- explaining why there are different seasons on Earth, as this is complex, and best left until later
Teacher Tip: These difficulties are distilled from: the research findings; the practice of well-connected teachers with expertise; issues intrinsic to representing the physics well.
