1 Pupils should be taught to:
- describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system
- describe the movement of the moon relative to the Earth
- describe the sun, Earth and moon as approximately spherical bodies
- use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky
2 Notes and guidance (non-statutory)
- Pupils should be introduced to a model of the sun and Earth that enables them to explain day and night.
- Pupils should learn that the sun is a star at the centre of our solar system and that it has 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (Pluto was reclassified as a ‘dwarf planet’ in 2006).
- They should understand that a moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet (Earth has 1 moon; Jupiter has 4 large moons and numerous smaller ones).
- Note: pupils should be warned that it is not safe to look directly at the sun, even when wearing dark glasses.
- Pupils should find out about the way that ideas about the solar system have developed,
- understanding how the geocentric model of the solar system gave way to the heliocentric model by considering the work of scientists such as Ptolemy, Alhazen and Copernicus.
- Pupils might work scientifically by:
- comparing the time of day at different places on the Earth through internet links and direct communication;
- creating simple models of the solar system; constructing simple shadow clocks and sundials, calibrated to show midday and the start and end of the school day; finding out why some people think that structures such as Stonehenge might have been used as astronomical clocks.
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