Study Guides

Unit Summary

This unit covers the movement of the Earth, moon, and planets, describing them as spherical bodies. It explains Earth's rotation, causing day and night, and the sun's apparent movement. Emphasis is on recording complex data, presenting findings, and evaluating scientific evidence.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to describe and compare the sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon.

Key Notes

• The Sun is much bigger than Earth and the Moon
• More than one million Earths would fit into the Sun
• Earth is much smaller than the Sun, but bigger that the Moon
• The Moon is approximately one quarter of the size of Earth
• We can find out about the size of objects in space by carrying out research

Vocabulary To Learn

• Earth: Earth is the planet on which we live.
• Sun: The Sun is a star and is at the centre of our solar system.
• Moon: Our Moon is an object that travels around planet Earth.
• relative: We can compare the relative size of objects to help us understand how big they are.
• scale: We can use scale to help us understand the size of very big or very small things.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• The Earth, Sun and Moon are the same size, or that the Sun is much smaller than it actually is.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• How we see the Moon from Earth Study Guide
• More about the Sun (non-statutory) Study Guide
• Observing the Moon Study Guide
• Scientific theories from the past (non-statutory) Study Guide
• The movement of the Moon Study Guide
• The movement of the planets around the Sun Study Guide
• The planets in our solar system (non-statutory) Study Guide
• The shape of Earth Study Guide
• The shape of objects in space Study Guide
• Why the Sun appears to move across the sky Study Guide
• Why we have day and night Study Guide