NCERT solutions for Environmental Studies - Looking Around [English] Class 5 chapter 11 - Sunita in Space [Latest edition]

What do you think the earth looks like? Make a drawing of the earth in your notebook. On your drawing show where you are. Take a look at your friends’ drawings too.

If the earth is round like a globe, how is it that we do not fall off?

Do the people in Argentina stand upside down?

Can you think why Sunita’s hair was standing?

Look at Sunita’s photographs and the dates written on each of them. Write what all is happening and when?

Close your eyes. Imagine that your class is a spaceship. Zooo...m – in 10 minutes you have entered space. Your spaceship is now going around the earth. Now say:

• Are you able to sit in one place?
• What about your hair?
• Oh, look … where are your bags and books going?
• what is your teacher doing? Where is her chalk?
• How did you eat your food during the break? How did you drink water? What happened to the ball that you threw up?

Can you now say why Sunita’s hair kept standing?

Think why water flows downwards on any slope. On mountains, water flows downwards, not upwards.

Take a 5 rupee coin and a small piece of paper. The paper should be about one-fourth the size of the coin.

• Hold the coin in one hand and the paper in the other. Drop them at the same time. What happened?
• Now place the tiny paper on the coin and drop them. What happened this time? Surprised!

To play this you will need a small stone, a bigger stone (lemon-sized), a thick roll of paper (which can be made with layers of paper), a mouse, and an elephant made of paper.

- Take a string about 2 feet long.

- At one end of the string tie the small stone. Stick or tie the mouse to the stone. - Put the string into the roll of paper.

- At the other end of the string tie the bigger stone and stick the elephant.

- Hold the roll of paper and move your hand to rotate the small stone.

• Who is pulling whom? You will be surprised! The mouse lifts the elephant! How did this magic happen?

• Can you see India? 
• Can you recognize any other place?
• Where is the sea? 
• Do you find anything similar between the globe and this picture of the earth? In what ways are they different? 
• Do you think Sunita could make out Pakistan, Nepal, and Burma separately when she saw the earth from space?

• Can you find India?
• Where all do you find the sea? 
• Which countries can you see? 
• Can you see some of the countries with which India plays cricket matches? For example England, Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and South Africa.
• What else can you see on the globe?

• Can you find the state in which you live? Write its name on the map.
• Which are the states next to the state you live in?
• Have you been to any other state?
• Shahmir thinks that there are lines drawn on the ground between the states. What do you think?

Why don’t you try to do the same with a coin? How many centimeters away from the eye did you keep the coin to hide the moon?

Do you think the moon is flat like the coin or round like a ball?

Look at the moon tonight and draw what it looks like. Look and draw again after one week, and then after 15 days.

When is the next full moon? At what time will the moon rise on this day? What does the moon look like on this day? Draw it.

What are the festivals related to the moon?

At night look at the sky carefully for 5 minutes.

• What could you see?
• Did you see anything moving in the sky? What do you think it could be? A star or a shooting star or a satellite (satellites are used for the TV, telephones, and for weather reports). Find out more about this.

Given below are the times at which the moon rises and sets in Delhi (on the given days).

• On 28 October the moon came out at ___ minutes past ___ o’clock.
• On 29 October the moon came out at ___ minutes past ___ o’clock.
• On 29 October there was a difference of ___ hours and ___ minutes in the time of the moonrise (as compared to 28 October).

If you saw the moon rising at 7 pm today, would you see it at the same time tomorrow?

On 31 October the time of setting of the moon is given as 12:03. Have you ever seen the moon at 12 in the afternoon? Why don’t we easily see the moon or stars during the day?

See how the earth is looking. Can you see the surface of the moon? Do you have some questions after looking at this picture? Write down those questions and discuss them in the class.

Why do children always slide down the slide and not slide up? If this slide were there in Sunita’s spacecraft, would children slide like this? Why?

Why do we see stars mostly at night?

Looking at earth from the space, Sunita said, “Different countries cannot be seen as separate from here. These lines are on paper. They are made by us.” What do you understand by this?