Rotation and Revolution of The Earth: Teaching Topic

Teaching topic:
Rotation and Revolution of the Earth
Focused core skill:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Teacher:
Lokendra Subedi
School:
Shree Amar Jyoti Secondary School
1
Lesson Plan
Subject: Science Class: 9 No. of Students: 50 Time: 45 mins
Teaching topic
Rotation and Revolution of the Earth
Focussed Core Skill

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
(Expected) Learning outcomes

By the end of this period the students will be able to:
1. Define axis, orbit, rotation and revolution
2. Demonstrate how the earth moves round the sun
3. Explain how and why the seasons change
Required materials
torch lights and globes, a projector and laptop
Teaching learning activities Time division
Warm up 5 mins
Divide students in groups
Teacher asks the following questions and uses the think-pair-share
technique
y Do you know how many seasons we have in a year? (Answer: 6 in
Nepali, 4 in English)
y Teacher asks “Why do you think we have seasons?”. Students think
for 1 minute and write what they thought of.
y Students discuss their answers in pairs.
y Teacher takes whole class feedback.
Activity 15 mins
Teacher turns on the fan and ask students the following questions:
y What is happening to the fan?
y How would you describe the way it is moving?
y What are some other things that move in similar way?
Teacher moves a ball around inside a tyre\tube and asks students

y How is the ball moving?
y What are the similarities and differences between the movement of
the fan and the ball?
y Have you seen any other things that move in a similar way to the
ball around the tyre?
Teacher clarifies that the fan moves on an axis and this sort of
movement is called rotation; the ball on the other hand moves around
an orbit and this type of movement is called revolution.
2
Teacher asks students
y How do the movements of the fan and the ball relate to the Earth’s
movement?
y How does the movement of the Earth influence season change?
Teacher summarizes that the Earth moves both on its axis like a fan
and on its path like a ball.
Teacher asks students to define the terms axis, orbit, rotation and
revolution in their own words. Students then share answers in pairs
and shares with the whole class.
Video demonstration 10 mins

Teacher gives students a worksheet with the following questions:
y What do we call the imaginary line that passes through the north
pole to the south pole of the Earth?
y The Earth spins about itself. What is this movement called?
y What causes day and night on the Earth?
y What would happen if Earth doesn’t rotate?
y When we are facing towards the Sun (Eastern hemisphere), what do
we have? Day or night? Guess? At the same time do peoples from
the US (western hemisphere) have the same that we have?
y The Earth’s axis is tilted by
A. 00 B. 900 C. 23.50 D. 22.50
y What would happen if the Earth didn’t revolve around the Sun?
y What would happen if the Earth wasn’t tilted?
y Which seasons do we have at the time when the part we live leans
towards the sun?
Students find the answers to these questions while watching the video
that the teacher is going to show.
Students then compare answers in pairs and teacher takes whole class
feedback.
Demonstration 10 mins
Teacher distributes the torch lights and globes to each group and asks
them to do the following:
y To identify the axis on the globe.
y To demonstrate how the Earth moves around the sun.
y To demonstrate about the occurrence of day and night.
y When the northern hemisphere (where your country lies) leans
towards the sun, which season occurs there?
y During June/July month, the southern hemisphere leans away from
the sun. which season could it form in the southern hemisphere?
How do you say that? Please demonstrate.
y What would happen if the Earth was revolving around the sun
without its inclination by 23.50
y To demonstrate when the sunlight directly falls on the southern
hemisphere and what would be its effects.
y Talk about the main causes of season change and let them
demonstrate to justify causes.
3
Student evaluation 5 mins
Three facts and a fib

Teacher asks all students to write three facts and a fib about the topic
they just learned. Teacher has students take turns sharing their three
facts and a fib with their partner in their group. For this, each group
selects their leader. Then teacher gets students to play this between
groups.
Teacher Review
Teaching is a constant cycle of planning, teaching, reflecting and revising. One of the most
important professional habits we can cultivate is reflective practice. It is by looking back on
lessons that we have taught and assessing them objectively that we develop as teachers. Here
Lokendra Subedi reflects on what went well and how he might amend things were he to teach this
lesson to another class in the future.
Overall, I was satisfied and happy with today’s lesson and felt that the learning objectives were
achieved.
In terms of what went well, the students were asked to show how the position of globe results
in day and night and were able to answer. I also enjoyed the game at the end that I conducted
called 3 facts and a fib which was a fun way of testing understanding and applying their
learning.
The key challenge was time management and keeping to time. As a result, I couldn’t evaluate all
the students enough as we added more information. In particular, the experiment was longer
than expected. In the future, I would write the set of instructions and distribute it first in pairs
and they would be able to do the experiment a bit faster.
Student Review
As teachers it benefits us to understand the students’ perspectives. The more aware we are of
their perceived needs and of how they are experiencing the lessons we teach, the better able
we will be to modify and improve our approach. Here Lokendra Subedi’s students provide their
feedback:
The class was fantastic and it felt like the period finished very fast. I liked the demonstration of
tube with ball moving and the experiment with torch and globe. I really enjoyed the game to
find the false statement of my friends. I learned the two types of movement of the earth, how
the earth is tilted and how it causes the change of seasons. It is really applicable in our daily
life.
One thing that could have been improved was the YouTube video that I showed them. If it was in
Nepali or played at a slower speed, it would be easier to understand.
4
The teacher trainer’s review on the lesson and how it might be further
developed
Lokendra is seeking to incorporate critical thinking and problem solving into a science lesson
and does so by using practical science demonstrations to both teach and support student
learning. He is able to both provide new information to students as well as provide opportunity
to experiment with real life application of the concept.
From the training on Critical Thinking and Problem solving we learned that there are three key
teaching practices that support this skill which are:
y Asking good, open questions
y Modelling how to think critically and solve problems
y Providing effective feedback and corrections
We see this progression in Lokendra’s lesson.

y Asking Open Questions: It begins with an opportunity for students to address a general
question “what causes the four seasons” that will be the subject of the lesson. This open-
ended Think-Pair-Share exercise provides a foundation for students to layer additional
knowledge on to.
y Modelling how to Think: Lokendra then presents the class with a physical example of the
phenomenon using easy to find resources available in any community, an example of the
teacher himself problem solving.
y Providing Effective Feedback: The main student led activity using globes and torch
lights promotes critical thinking and problem solving by allowing groups of students the
opportunity to engage directly with the learning objectives. By structuring this around key
questions for them to answer, they are able to think through the implication of the principles
that they have just learned and he is able to provide feedback as the activity progresses.
The session does have challenges around time, language, and class size which will be looked at
in the reflection activity next.
Wrap Around and Reflection Activity

Lokendra’s lesson was quite good and there is much to learn from it. If you were to do a similar
lesson, consider the following points:
y How to prioritize different teaching talking time and student talking time when promoting
learning and core skills in a class.
y Strategies that can be used to manage large class sizes when lesson activities require
student engagement and involvement
y Creation of low cost learning aids like the ones that Lokendra has used in the video.

Rotation and Revolution of The Earth: Teaching Topic

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Rotation and Revolution of The Earth: Teaching Topic

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Teaching topic:

Rotation and Revolution of the Earth

Focused core skill:

Focussed Core Skill

(Expected) Learning outcomes

Teaching learning activities Time division

Teacher moves a ball around inside a tyre\tube and asks students

Video demonstration 10 mins

Three facts and a ﬁb

We see this progression in Lokendra’s lesson.

Wrap Around and Reﬂection Activity

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