1. Introducing Day and Night

2. What is the difference between the Earth’s rotation on its axis and its revolution around the sun? Rotation on axis provides us day and night. It takes the Earth about 24 hours to spin one time. Revolution around the sun is the Earth moving in orbit around the sun and takes about one year.

3. Why do we experience times of light and of dark on the surface of the Earth?

4. The lamp will be placed in the middle of the room. How can we use it to show day and night? Take a few minutes with your partner to decide how to do this.

5. The lamp in the center is the sun. Your head is Earth. Your eye is the observer on the Earth. (A fixed spot on the planet.) Move yourself so your eye (observer) can see the sun. Model day and night.

6. When a body turns or spins in a circle, like a top. The imaginary line on which it spins is called the axis. Earth rotates on an axis that runs through it from the North to the South Poles.

7. Day Night Noon Midnight Sunrise Sunset

8. What direction do you think Earth rotates on it’s axis? Discuss this with a partner. We will now view a simulation that will allow us to see what we just did as a class and to see the rotation of the Earth. http://www.fossweb.com/delegate/ssi-foss- ucm/Contribution%20Folders/FOSS/multimedia_ms_ 1E/PlanetaryScience/binders/media/daynight.htm http://www.fossweb.com/delegate/ssi-foss- ucm/Contribution%20Folders/FOSS/multimedia_ms_ 1E/PlanetaryScience/binders/media/daynight.htm So…….What direction does Earth rotate? Counterclockwise.

9. Answer the questions on the handout Day/Night Think Questions. Place these in your journals. We will revisit these questions tomorrow as well.