Science and Technology K–6 · Years 1–2

Day and night with a globe and a torch

Earth and Space, changes in the sky and on the land (NSW 2017); The sky is our window to the Universe (NSW 2024); Science understanding, Earth and space sciences, and Science inquiry (ACARA v9)

PracticalLow risk

The idea

Day and night are an observable change in the sky, and a globe turned beside a lamp models what causes them: Earth is a ball that turns once a day, so the side facing the sun has day while the other side has night.

What you need

A globe on its stand; a bright torch or a lamp 2 m away in a darkened room
A small sticker on Sydney and another on a city on the far side (London)
A rotating platform is optional; turning the globe by hand on its axis is enough

How to do it

Shine the lamp on the globe from 2 m. Find the lit half and the dark half. Which sticker is in daylight.
Turn the globe slowly from west to east (anticlockwise looking down on the North Pole) and stop when Sydney reaches the edge of the light. Is that sunrise or sunset for Sydney.
Keep turning until Sydney is in the middle of the lit side (noon), then to the far edge (sunset), then to the middle of the dark side (midnight). Count how many turns make one day.
Predict what London has when Sydney has noon, then turn the globe to check.
Draw the globe and the lamp at Sydney's noon and at Sydney's midnight, and label day and night.

What you should see

Exactly one full turn takes Sydney from sunrise through noon, sunset and midnight back to sunrise. When Sydney is at noon, London is in the night (between about 1 am and 3 am, depending on daylight saving in each city), because it is about 150 degrees of longitude away, on the far side of the globe. The learner knows it worked when they can stop the globe at Sydney's sunrise and sunset and name each correctly.

What changes

This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

The sun goes down because it moves behind the hills.
Night happens because clouds cover the sun.
Everyone on Earth has night at the same time.

Safety card

Low riskLearners carry it out

Hazards

Darkened room; an incandescent or halogen lamp gets hot

Controls

Floor cleared; an LED lamp used

Note

No chemicals or heat. Record the activity on the school's risk assessment (Primary School RiskAssess, Ecosolve Australia, riskassess.com.au).

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-23. Stage 1 content under this outcome is the observable changes in the sky and on the land, including patterns in the position of the Sun across a day, which is what the class observes here. The rotation that explains day and night is Stage 2 content in this syllabus (investigate how the Earth's rotation on its axis causes regular changes including night and day, ACSSU048, ST2-10ES-S) and Stage 1 content in the 2024 syllabus, so under the syllabus in force today the globe and torch is the teacher's model of a Stage 1 observation rather than Stage 1 content of its own.ST1-10ES-S
Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-23.ST1-1WS-S
Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.ST1-SCI-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9S2U01AC9S2I01AC9S2I04AC9S2I06

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

All Concept Studio activities