Science and Technology K–6 · Years 1–2

Seasons: keeping a term-long record of daylight and temperature

Earth and Space (NSW 2017); Science understanding, Earth and space sciences, and Science as a human endeavour (ACARA v9)

Practical, model not builtLow risk

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The idea

Days get longer and warmer or shorter and cooler through the year in a pattern that repeats, and the change can be measured week by week.

What you need

A weekly chart for the whole term: date, sunrise and sunset times from the Bureau of Meteorology or a newspaper, hours of daylight, the day's maximum temperature
A thermometer at the class's shaded site read at 3 pm each Monday
A tree or deciduous shrub in the grounds photographed each Monday from the same spot

How to do it

Each Monday record sunrise and sunset and count the daylight hours (sunset minus sunrise).
Read the 3 pm shade temperature and photograph the tree.
Draw a line graph of daylight hours and a bar graph of temperature across the term.
Say whether days are getting longer or shorter this term and what the tree is doing.
Predict the daylight hours for the first Monday of next term and check it then.

What you should see

Daylight hours fall week by week from about 21 December to about 21 June and rise from about 21 June to about 21 December, so across a NSW school year they fall in Term 1, fall in Term 2 until about 21 June and then begin to rise, and rise in Terms 3 and 4. Single 3 pm shade readings jump about with the weather, so a trend in temperature is harder to see across one term than the trend in daylight. Computed for Sydney with the solar model: the shortest day (about 21 June) has 9 h 54 min of daylight and the longest (about 21 December) 14 h 25 min, with 12 h 11 min on 21 March and 12 h 13 min on 23 September; the class compares these with the day lengths it works out from the published times. The tree photos show leaf loss in autumn and new growth in spring for a deciduous species. The learner knows it worked when the daylight line moves steadily across the term and turns round only at about 21 June or 21 December.

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.

Summer is warmer because the Earth is closer to the sun (it is the tilt and the longer, higher sun path).
Every day has 12 hours of daylight.
Winter in Sydney is the same time as winter in London.

Safety card

Low riskLearners carry it out

Hazards

None

Controls

Photographs taken from the path

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 2026-09-22.ST1-10ES-S 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 ST1-DAT-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9S1U02AC9S1H01AC9S1I03AC9S1I04AC9S1I06

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

All Concept Studio activities