Eratosthenes TheoryScience Year 5 Week 2

BackgroundA Greek mathematician and astronomer named Eratosthenes lived around 200BCHe once had a debate with a person who was of the belief that the Earth was flat. Eratosthenes disagreed and set about to scientifically prove his point that the Earth was in fact roundHe is best known for being the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth which was scientific proof that the Earth in fact was not flat

‘But it looks flat’ Comic

Response…How did the characters use information in their world to form their ideas?Why did the characters disagree?What did Eratosthenes suggest when they disagreed? Why?

Response…Why do you think the companion listened to eratosthenes’ idea?What evidence do we have now that would further support Eratosthenes’s ideas?

Discussion

Scientific knowledge is a set of claims made by scientist based on observations and evidence.

Discussion

100’s of years ago there was a major debate about whether the Sun orbited the Earth or the Earth orbited the Sun

‘Debating Our Place’

Think about each claim, which is correct?Why have you chosen that claim?

‘Debating Our Place’What we THINK we know

What we WANT to learn

What we LEARNED

HOW we know

Claim 1The moon and the sun both circle the Earth

Claim 2The moon circles the Earth while the Sun circles them both

Claim 3The moon circles the Earth while the Earth circles the Sun

Sun

Moon

Earth

‘Relationship between the Sun, Moon and

Earth’They all spin on their axis clockwise. The Moon orbits the Earth once daily which takes 24 hours. The Earth orbits the Sun once yearly which takes 365 days. The side of the Earth that is facing the Sun is day time and the side of the Earth facing away from the Sun is night time. This is how we get night and day.