The Fairy-Land of Science · Lecture II, part 1 · Part 2: Lecture II: Sunbeams and the work they do
4. Morning light and the giant Sun
Goal: Your child can explain that morning comes because the Earth turns, and can picture how much bigger than the Earth the Sun is.
You'll need
- A flashlight or lamp (a lamp with no shade works well)
- A ball or orange, and a small sticker
- A dried pea or peppercorn and a large dinner plate
- Science notebook and pencils
What's in the book
Pages 26 to 32. Light creeping into a dark room at dawn; the Earth turning toward the Sun (with a globe and a lamp); how far away the Sun is (an express train would take 171 years) and how big it is (106 Earths across its face); and how the tiny Earth catches only a little of its light, like a mustard-seed near a lamp.
The lesson, step by step
Hook question
SayHave you ever woken up while it was still dark, and watched the room slowly get light? What do you see first?
Let your child answer. Buckley says you see shapes first, then white things, then the colors last.
Read together
Read pages 26 to 28.
Who does not love the sunbeams, and feel brighter and merrier as he watches them playing on the wall
We say that the sun is rising, but we know very well that it is not the sun which moves, but that our earth has been turning slowly round
Try it: make a morning
Darken the room. Put the sticker on the ball to stand for your home. Shine the flashlight at the ball (the Sun). Turn the ball slowly from left to right so the sticker comes round from the dark side, through the edge of the light, into the full light.
SayThat edge is sunrise. The Sun didn't move. We turned.
How far, how big?
Read pages 29 and 30.
At that rate, if you wished to arrive at the sun to-day you would have been obliged to start 171 years ago.
it would take 106 such earths to stretch across the face of the sun.
Put the pea on the plate. If the plate is the Sun's face, the pea is about the size of the Earth. Then draw a row of little dots across a big circle in the notebook, the way her Fig. 4 does.
Safety
SayThe Sun is so strong that its light can hurt your eyes.
Safety: never look straight at the Sun, not even for a moment, and never through glass, a lens or sunglasses.
Buckley mentions a magnifying glass setting paper alight in the sun. Don't try it: it can start a fire and hurt your eyes.
Tell it back and check
Your child tells back why it gets light in the morning. Then ask:
1. Does the Sun move round us, or do we turn?
2. Which is bigger, the Earth or the Sun? By a little or a lot?
3. What would happen if the Sun went dark? (Buckley: no rain, no rivers, no plants; everything frozen.)
What we know now
The Sun is about 93 million miles away on average and about 109 Earths wide. Buckley's numbers were close. About a million Earths would fit inside it.
Afterwards
Notice it this week: watch the light come in one morning or fade one evening. Which colors disappear first at dusk?
Tip
Big numbers mean little to young children. The pea and the plate say more than the figures, so let your child hold them.
Answers to the book's problems
1. The Earth turns; the Sun only seems to rise. 2. The Sun, by a great deal: more than a hundred Earths would stretch across its face. 3. Everything would freeze: no rain, no rivers, no plants, no animals.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.