Overview

Section 1: What makes objects in the sky look different?

Students engage in hands-on investigations to explain how we can see illuminated objects in the sky. Students specifically focus on the Moon, the Sun, stars, and planets in the sky. They discover how some stars are brighter than other stars. They construct an argument that there are differences in the brightness of the sun versus other stars due to their relative distances from Earth.

Section 2: How can we use patterns in the sky to tell time?

Students design sundials and use graphical displays to explore how shadows change throughout the day. They use a model to explain how Earth’s rotation causes patterns in shadows. Students represent data in graphical displays, observing patterns in daylight hours throughout the year. They use a model to explain how Earth’s revolution and axial tilt causes this pattern. Students use a planisphere and a stars-through-the-year model to track star positions over time. Student’s observe the phases of the Moon, and use a model to explain this pattern. In each lesson, they obtain information about how ancient civilizations’ developed clocks and calendars based on these patterns.

Section 3: How can we explain the patterns in space we observe?

Students investigate how Earth’s gravity affects objects near its surface. They discover the Sun’s gravity affects planets in our solar system. Students interact with a gravity simulator and identify how the Sun’s gravity causes the planet’s orbital motion, which results in some of the patterns they observed throughout the unit. Students use what they have learned to develop a narrative, depicting a fictional civilization and how they used patterns in the sky to keep time. They craft an online storybook, and share their stories with first grade classes.

Enduring Understandings

A system is a collection of objects, such as our solar system. A system changes when the parts of the system change.

Gravity is a force that pulls objects toward the center of another object with more mass. Earth is spherical and no matter where you are on Earth, objects seem to fall “down”.

The Earth’s counterclockwise rotation on its axis causes patterns of day and night. The Earth’s counterclockwise revolution around the Sun causes yearly seasonal patterns.

Daylight hours are longer in summer months and shorter in winter months. The tilt of Earth’s axis is the reason that some days are longer than others. This tilt and the revolution of Earth around the sun causes the seasons.

Shadow lengths are longer in the morning and late afternoon and the shortest around noon. The shadows fall from west to east over the course of a day. These patterns are caused by the Earth’s counterclockwise rotation on its axis.

The rotation of Earth causes the moon to appear to move across the sky. The revolution of the moon around the Earth, as the Earth orbits the sun, causes the phases of the moon.

Some stars look bright because their relative distance to the Earth is closer than other stars. Other stars appear equally bright even though they are many times further away from Earth because they have high luminosity. Additionally, stars appear to move across the night sky, and different stars are observed in the night sky throughout the year. These patterns are caused by the rotation and revolution of the Earth.

To Do List

In order to successfully complete Module 1, please complete the lessons at the pace set by your teacher.

Research about sunrise, sunset, temperature, and weather. (This is done at the end of the unit.)

Communicate information by writing an informative piece about the brightness of objects in the sky.

Use a model of the moon to explain phases and describe how ancient civilizations used moon phases and stars in the sky.

Use what you have learned to develop a fictional story about an ancient society who uses celestial objects to tell time.