What will you do with an extra 30 seconds? Scholars learn that December 22nd is 24 hours and 30 seconds long, which classifies it as the longest day of the year. An engaging video lesson analyzes Earth's orbit in combination with its rotation to explain this variation in day length.

Concepts

days of the week, the earth's rotation, length, the earth's orbit

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• After viewing the video, have pupils write a summary of why December 22nd is the longest day of the year
• Post the video for pupils to watch multiple times to fully grasp the information

Classroom Considerations

• To watch the video independently, learners need Internet access

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• An interesting approach to studying Earth's orbit and rotation
• Sketches add important information to the concepts

Cons

• None