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 can consider evidence from the past, and describe the shape of the Earth.

Key Notes

• Throughout history, people have disagreed about the shape of the Earth.
• Evidence from the past has helped us to understand the shape of the Earth.
• The Earth is approximately spherical in shape, and can be represented with a globe.

Vocabulary To Learn

• Earth: Earth is the planet on which we live
• evidence: Evidence is information which helps us to prove that something is true or not true
• spherical: A shape that is spherical is round like a ball
• globe: A globe is a spherical model of the Earth
• horizon: The horizon is the line in the far distance where the sky appears to meet the land or the sea.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Pupils may think that objects in space are flat, circular shapes rather than spherical

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 relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon (non-statutory) 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