This can be used for all age groups 11 - 18. A good lesson to use in the wind down towards the summer break, or if your looking for a practical to engage pupils in topics such as motors, electromagnets, or magnetic fields
A homopolar motor is a cheap and easy motor you can make in the classroom with battery, neodymium magnet and wire. This lesson challenges pupils to make their own homopolar motor using the instructions provided. I have also included some of the descriptive tasks I used with my class we did this.
Once pupils have grasped the idea of day and night being caused by the Earths rotation, build on it with this activity introducing and explaining the concept of a timezone.
A powerpoint slide explaining why the seasons occur with some simple tasks to help pupils take notes.
A worksheet to test their understanding of the topic (Including dates of seasons, why they occur, and how the solar intensity and day length change).