Year 3 Science Lesson Plan: Earth & Space Science
Class: 3 Duration: 40 minutes
Lesson topic/focus: Discovering how the Sun and Earth move to create day and night
Lesson intent/purpose: By the end of the lesson, students will have an understanding of and be able to explain (verbally, physically, visually, etc.) the rotation of the Earth that causes day and night.
Links to curriculum elements:
Year 3 Science
- Science Understanding: Earth and Space Sciences- Earth’s rotation on its axis causes regular changes, including night and day (ACSSU048)
- Science as a Human Endeavor: Nature and development of science- Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE050)
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability: Managing and operating ICT Level 3- Select and use hardware and software (identify and independently operate a range of devices, software, functions and commands, taking into consideration ergonomics when operating appropriate ICT systems, and seek solution when encountering a problem)
(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015)
Prior learning/understanding: Prior lessons introducing concepts of Day and Night, drawing on prior understandings and misconceptions
| How are we going to learn? | Adaptations for individual learners |
| Orientate – 10 minutes
1. Teacher briefly recaps previous lessons in the unit through class discussion (E.g. “Who can tell me what we have been learning about in our last few Science lessons?”, “What experiments did we do?” & “What did we notice about the sun?”), before introducing focus of lesson (E.g. “Today we are going to be finding out about why the sun acts this way”) 2. The whole class watches a video projected onto the whiteboard: ‘Day and Night Video’ (Hill, n.d. published by Museum Victoria) (This video explains that night and day are caused by Earth’s rotation on its axis) 3. Teacher asks a few students to explain, in there own words, what the video was talking about. 4. Teacher then explains the next activity, saying that students will each pick up a laptop from the trolley, take it back to their desks, set it up and type in the url that has been written on the board. Teacher demonstrates (using desktop computer connected to the projector) what the site should look like and how students can use the time manipulation feature of the animation to explore the position of the sun at different times of the day. 5. Check for understanding: verbal (“Does everyone understand what they need to do?”) and ask one student to explain instructions back to the class |
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| Enhance – 25 minutes
6. Students each collect a laptop and set it up at their desks (log in). They go to the website written on the whiteboard (approximately 5 minutes). 7. Students independently engage with interactive website activity produced by the Children’s University of Manchester, ‘Day and Night’ (This activity explores and explains concepts of day and night) (approximately 10 minutes) 8. *Students who finish interactive website activity early are asked to explain what causes night and day. They are able to write a few a sentences or draw a diagram (using their choice of medium, e.g. pen and paper, Microsoft Word, etc) 9. Students are asked to pack up laptops and sit on the carpet (approximately 5 minutes) 10. As a class, a map that shows which countries are currently experiencing night and which are currently experiencing day (‘Day and Night World Map’) is explored and discussed; experimenting with different dates and times (approximately 5-10 minutes)
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Some students may require the assistance of the teacher, teacher aid or other students to help them set up their laptop and navigate to the appropriate website Students with low vocabulary may require an electronic dictionary (dictionary.com open on another tab) to aid in understanding Students with low reading abilities may be assisted by teacher, teacher aid or other students OR use a screen-reader and headphones to avoid distraction to other students |
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Synthesize – 5 minutes 11. Students are asked to think back to the activity they did in the last lesson (using a torch and Playdough to model what they think the Earth and Sun do to make day and night) (E.g. “would you do anything different?”) 12. Two volunteers are asked to come out the front of the class, one to hold the torch (Sun) and one to hold the Playdough ball (Earth). The class is asked to direct the students on what they should do the model what the Earth and Sun move to make day and night. Another student is asked to use one of the class iPads to record a video of the demonstration for future reference. Teacher checks for accuracy and understanding. 13. Teacher explains that in the next lesson the class will be exploring what the Sun, Earth and Moon do to make months, seasons and years. Resources
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