Astronomy, 7–10 years — 20 topics · MyLeoNes™ Kuks
20 astronomy topics written for 7–10 years — not a older text simplified. In teaching order, each a deck of five cards: the idea, why it exists, a worked example, the common trap and where you meet it.
Astronomy · 7–10 years
Day and night
Earth turns like a slowly spinning ball. The side facing the Sun has daylight, while the side turned away has night.
Phases of the Moon
The Moon does not change shape from week to week. We see different amounts of its sunlit half as the Moon travels around Earth.
The Solar System
The Sun and the objects held in its neighbourhood make a family called the Solar System. The planets travel around the Sun, but they are not little stars.
Why seasons happen
Seasons happen because Earth's axis is tilted as Earth travels around the Sun. That tilt changes the angle and length of sunlight in each hemisphere during the year.
What stars are
Stars are enormous, hot balls of gas that make their own light. Our Sun is one star among many.
Constellations are sky patterns
A constellation is a pattern people imagine among stars. The stars only look close together from Earth; they may be at very different distances.
Gravity holds things in space
Gravity is the pull between objects with mass. It makes things fall on Earth and helps moons and planets follow curved paths.
Space rocks and meteors
Asteroids and comets travel through space. A small piece that enters Earth’s air can glow as a meteor, and a piece reaching the ground is a meteorite.
Eclipses
How the Sun, Earth and Moon can line up so that one casts a shadow on another.
How telescopes help us see space
Why collecting more light matters more than simply making an image look bigger.
Galaxies
How stars belong to enormous groups, including the galaxy that contains our Solar System.
Space probes
How robotic spacecraft visit places where people cannot yet go and send back evidence.
Why comets grow tails
A comet can change from a dark, frozen lump into a bright object with a long tail when it comes near the Sun.
Light pollution hides the stars
Artificial light at night can make the sky bright enough to hide faint stars. The way lights are aimed and shielded changes how much of the night sky we can see.
Black holes
A black hole is a region where matter has been squeezed so strongly that even light cannot escape from a boundary around it.
Planets around other stars
An exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star beyond our Solar System. Most are too far away and too faint to photograph directly, so astronomers find them by noticing how they affect their star.
How the Sun powers Earth
The Sun is more than a bright object in the sky: its energy warms Earth and helps living things grow.
Why ocean tides rise and fall
The Moon’s pull helps move the oceans, making sea level rise and fall in a repeating pattern.
Auroras: lights made by the Sun and Earth
Auroras are colourful sky lights made when particles from the Sun meet gases high above Earth.
Why astronauts float in orbit
Astronauts in a spacecraft are not beyond gravity. They and their spacecraft are falling around Earth together, which makes them seem weightless.
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