Spinning Out

What makes the sun rise? Why do we have seasons?

The pattern of our days, from morning, noon and night, occurs because we live on a constantly spinning Earth.

In Spinning Out we take a look at the Earth from space, connecting its motion to the daily and yearly patterns of life.

Living on a remote property in southern Australia, Anna is a student of the School of the Air. Over the radio her teacher, Mr Weedman, suggests that Anna uses her imagination to better understand today’s lesson on the Earth, Sun and Seasons. With that encouragement Anna’s radio comes to life, taking on the personality of Mr Weedman and our journey begins.

We watch day turn into night as the Earth rotates and see the stars rising in the east and setting in the west, a reminder of Earth’s constant motion. We follow Earth’s longer road around the Sun and discover what is meant by the Earth’s tilt and why this brings about the seasons. We explore how the Sun appears to move against the stars and the different paths it takes in the sky as the seasons change.

From Earth’s poles, where winter brings never-ending night and summer never-ending day, to the equator where the Sun’s path hardly varies at all, Spinning Out shows us how interesting it is to live on a planet.

Bookings on arrival at Scienceworks.