Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
On 21 December, a school in Reykjavík, Iceland, holds its winter concert. The Sun rises at about twenty past eleven in the morning and sets at about half past three. The same day, a family in Ushuaia, Argentina, picnics in sunshine at nine in the evening: their Sun sets after ten. In Singapore, the Sun rises at about 7 and sets at about 7, as it does all year. Your team's job: find the pattern in day length around the world, and explain why the days change.
Teams of three: Card holder (holds the city card in the line-up), Caller (reads out the day length), Recorder (writes the class data).
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
9 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: City cards
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- Class data: hours of daylight in 2026
- Graph it
- What the line-up showed
- Solstice postcard
- City cards
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 3 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Graphs the data
- Describes the pattern
- Explains with tilt and spin
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “Why are summer days longer?” take?
45–60 min. Group size: teams of 3, then the whole class.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes. Print one set of city cards and cut them apart (one card per team; with fewer than ten teams, give some teams two). Mark one end of the room NORTH and the other SOUTH, and stick a sheet saying EQUATOR on the floor a little past the middle. Copy the student sheet.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): MS-ESS1-1 (partly) and 5-ESS1-2 (partly). It also matches England National Curriculum, Key Stage 3; England National Curriculum, Year 5 and Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary Science (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “Class data: hours of daylight in 2026”, “Graph it”, “What the line-up showed”, “Solstice postcard”, “City cards”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 3 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.