Year 3 Term 2

SPINNING IN SPACE

Year 3 is studying a unit called Spinning in Space in Term 2. The unit examines Earth's place in space and it's movement in space. Students will investigate how the movements and positions of the Earth, Moon and the Sun causes day and night and seasons on Earth.

The Emu in the Sky

Many thousands of years before the Greek people 'invented' astronomy, Aboriginal Australians had been observing the skies, using their knowledge to survive the Australian landscape.
Unlike Greek celestial tradition, which focuses almost exclusively on stars, Aboriginal astronomy focuses on the Milky Way and often incorporates the dark patches between stars.

The Emu in the Sky, a story common to many Aboriginal groups, is an example of this — its body is made up of the dark patches in the Milky Way. The Boorong people saw the same dark patches as the smoke from the fires of Nurrumbunguttias, the old spirits. The Kaurna people saw the Milky Way — called Wodliparri or hut river — as a large river where a Yura (monster) lives in the dark patches.

Photo credit: Shae Nechwatal

Blue Marble ......

A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite took the image on the right of the entire sunlit side of Earth from 1.6 million km away. Can you spot Australia down under?
It can be compared to one of the most famous photographs of Earth, taken by the astronauts on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. This original photograph (below) which was taken by the astronauts as they were on their way to the moon changed the way we look at our home planet. It illustrated the Earth as an isolated ecosystem, floating in space, and fostered a greater awareness of the need to understand the Earth better. Click on the photograph to watch a short film documenting astronaut's life-changing stories of seeing the earth from the outside - a perspective altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.
Watch the video on the right as well for more astonishing images from the EPIC camera on DSCOVR including a lunar and solar eclipse.

Image courtesy NASA

Earth & Moon from Space

This wonderful image of Earth and its natural satellite, the Moon was taken by the Galileo spacecraft as it set off on its interplanetary journey to Jupiter. It was launched from Earth in October 1989 and took this image in 1992 when it was 6.2 million kilometres from Earth.

When humans left Earth ......

Of course the only time human beings have actually been anywhere outside of Earth was with the Apollo program which took humans to the Moon way back in 1969. Watch the video on the left below for an understanding of how important this was, and the video on the right to see highlights of the first Moon landing.

How do we know the Earth is rotating?

.Well, in earlier times it was because our observations of how the night sky changed over the year didn't fit with the view that the earth was staying still with everything else orbiting around it. Nowadays of course we can look back at it from the Moon, or Mars (from a rover), or a spacecraft heading off into space could turn its cameras back and see it spinning in space!
The image to the right was taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1990 as it headed out towards Jupiter. It continued taking an image almost every minute over a 25 hour period to give us this wonderful time lapse movie of our blue marble silently turning. Click on the image to download the movie in a new window

How do we know the Earth is rotating - 2? and why aren't we flying off it??

Watch this excellent video which explains why we aren't flying off into space if the Earth is spinning around at a speed of 1675 km per hour or 465 metres per second! Be patient and watch to the end - it's worth it.
Thank you to Lexington Public Library.

The reason for the seasons

Watch this video to find out why we have seasons on Earth and why it's warm and wonderful in Europe right now when we are cold and freezing in Australia.

The Reason for the Seasons - 2

Click on the image below to use an excellent interactive that explains how seasons are different in different parts of the world.

Aboriginal Calendar of the Seasons

Unlike most western cultures, most Australian aboriginal groups recognise more than just 4 seasons a year. Click on the image on the right to view an excellent interactive calendar of seasons from the Larrakia people of Darwin, NT.

Why does the Moon change shape?

Why Doesn't the Moon Fall Down?

The surprising answer is ......... It IS falling down all the time! Watch the video on theleft to understand how and why.

Online Animations

Earth Moon and Sun from BBC Bitesize Science

Night and Day from ABC Splash

ECLIPSES

We are all fascinated by eclipses - it's strange to think about shadows on such a large scale as the Earth, Moon and Sun. Watch the videos below to get a better understanding of the differences between solar and lunar eclipses and also why we don't see eclipses at the same time everywhere on Earth.