Teachers Note:

Description: Find out about day and night on board the International Space Station by simulating the relative movements of the ISS, the Earth and the Sun in 24 hours.

Objective(s): Understand the concepts of day and night, on Earth and on board the ISS.

Hints:

Some answers to the questions are:

• Preparation: when it is in position A, the ISS receives the light from the Sun, it is daytime on board the Station, whereas when it is in position B, the Earth stops the light from the Sun, and therefore it is night-time on board the ISS.

   

• Activity: to make it easier, the teacher can count. The only person moving is the ISS; the Earth rotates on itself only and the Sun stands still.

   

• Conclusions: the ISS has passed 16 times between the Sun and the Earth. Each time the ISS could be seen by the Sun directly, it was daytime on board, and each time it was hidden behind the Earth, it was night. In one day, the ISS orbits the Earth 16 times, being 16 times in the direct light from the Sun (day) and 16 times hidden from it (night). An astronaut cannot use the light on board the ISS to organise his/her day, (otherwise he/she would be sleeping for 90 minutes and awake for the following 90 minutes, etc). He/she follows the same day and night rhythms as on Earth, in 24 hours, and uses Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The big advantage is that the astronaut can see 16 sunsets in 24 hours…

To present this activity:

• You can also let the Earth count to 24 – hours in a day and give the ISS a speed of its own. Maybe this could be done with two metronomes: one for the Earth and one for the ISS. Or maybe the teacher can give the ISS a push whenever it has to start a new turn.

   

• This exercise can be used to teach geometry. Let the children divide the circle of the Earth into 16 (or 24 equal) parts.

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