This Geography scheme of work video equips teachers with the knowledge to explain to pupils why different places around the world experience day and night at different times. It explores how the Earth’s rotation causes time to vary globally and how time zones were introduced to provide a standardised system.

The video outlines the proposal by Sir Sandford Fleming in 1878 to divide the world into 24 time zones, each one 15 degrees of longitude apart, based on the Earth’s 360° rotation every 24 hours. Teachers will gain confidence in explaining how meridians mark these zones, how they occasionally bend around country borders, and why some countries like the USA have multiple time zones.

It introduces the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) in Greenwich, London as the reference point for global timekeeping, splitting the globe into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The video also covers the International Date Line and how travelling across it changes the day either forward or backward.

See more of our Year 5 and Year 6 Geography scheme of work.

• • Geography, Year 5, Would you like to live in the desert?, Lesson 4: How can people use deserts?
  • Geography, Year 6, Where does our energy come from?, Lesson 3: How does the United States generate energy?