Lesson 6: Satellites and space junk

Ensure any clocks are covered before the lesson so the children cannot see the time.

Arrange the class into their pairs from Lesson 5: Time and hand out the sundials they made and a compass (unless their sundial contains a compass).

Take the children outside if it is sunny so they can use their sundials to tell the time. Remind any children who require help to align their gnomon to north using the compass and look where the shadow is falling. If they only calibrated it to sunrise, sunset and midday, they will need to estimate the time very approximately.

If it is not sunny, stay inside and explain to the children that they cannot use the sundial to find out the time but that they can use it to find out the position of the Sun behind the clouds.

Hand out a torch to each pair and ask them to check the real time (uncovering the classroom clock). Instruct them to find the position of the torch that makes a shadow in the correct place for the current time. It will tell them where the Sun would be if they could see it.