This animation demonstrates why we have night and day.
An accompanying quiz strategically asks questions that gives teachers the opportunity to dig deeper into student thinking with questions such as "why do you think that?" and "If that were true, what would you expect to happen if?".
Students can then use the interactive to check their ideas.
New Australian Curriculum Codes: AC9S2U01 (Year 2)
This online resource looks at misconceptions about day and night.
The resource helps teachers understand the possible misconceptions younger students hold about day and night and how they contrast to scientific views. It outlines critical teaching ideas with references to research and literature to support, and provides ideas for ways to teach how the relationship of the Sun and the Earth creates day and night.
New Australian Curriculum Codes: AC9S2U01 (Year 2)
A unit of work about the differences between day and night.
It contains modules of work for younger students around the themes of the environment, astronomy, forensic science, cleanliness and solar energy and how they relate to the day–night cycle.
As an example, one part of this resource deals with how children relate and build on their experiences of daytime light and night-time dark (e.g., is the grass still green at night?).
New Australian Curriculum Codes: AC9S1U02 (Year 1)
This is a colour image of an astronaut on a space walk.
This awe-inspiring image of an astronaut using a jetpack against a background of the Earth could be used to provoke student thinking (e.g., "Do you think the photographed part of the Earth is in day or night? Explain.").
This unit of work teaches students how night and day occur.
It has a heavy literacy focus, but sequences 1–6 deals with how night and day occurs.
The unit also provides a literature study of Dreaming stories and folktales from a variety of cultures, related to the theme of night and day.
Each sequence is designed to take one or two 45-minute lessons to complete, with additional time suggested needed for students to carry out their own research.
New Australian Curriculum Codes: AC9S2U01 (Year 2)
