Earth & Space
📋 What it is
Earth spins (giving day/night) and orbits the Sun (giving years); the Moon orbits Earth.
🗣️ Coach says
The sky isn’t moving — WE are. Earth spins like a top, so the Sun seems to rise and set. It also circles the Sun once a year. The Moon circles us, and its changing sunlit part gives us the phases.
🧠 Memory hook
Spin = day/night. Orbit the Sun = a year. Moon phases = how much sunlit Moon we can see.
😂 Giggle
Why are chemists excellent at solving problems?
Because they have all the solutions!
😲 Whoa!
Earth spins at about 1,600 km/h at the equator — you’re moving incredibly fast right now and don’t feel a thing.
✅ Quick check: What causes day and night — Earth spinning, or the Sun moving around Earth?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Earth spinning on its axis — the Sun only APPEARS to move because we’re turning.
Day/night comes from Earth’s rotation, not the Sun orbiting us.
🪄 Trick question: Do we see phases because Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon?
Careful — think it through, then reveal.
No — phases come from how much of the Moon’s SUNLIT side faces us; Earth’s shadow causes eclipses, which are different.
Moon phases are about our viewing angle of the lit half, not Earth’s shadow.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Use a lamp (Sun) and a ball (Earth). Spin the ball to make “day and night” on one spot. Then walk it around the lamp for a “year”.