PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Solar System Scale Model
Teach the concept of scale models and the size of the solar system through this extensive lesson plan. Middle schoolers will learn about scale models, estimate which objects to use to create a scale model of Earth and Sun, and figure out...
American Association of Physics Teachers
Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Equinox Precession Model
Experience a science simulation illustrating the Copernican theory of Earth's orbit around the sun.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Astronomy
Eight hands-on lessons module in which students explore the characteristics of planet Earth, its moons, the sun, the solar system, planets, and the difference between science fact and science fiction.
NASA
Nasa: Heliophysics: New Science of the Sun Solar System Connection
This site from NASA lists common and uncommon misconceptions about Sun-Earth Science. Site also provides links to activities and lesson plans as well as background reading.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Earth Science: Revolutions of Earth
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] How objects in the solar system orbit around each other.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Earth Science: Revolutions of Earth
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] How objects in the solar system orbit around each other.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Earth and Sun
A slideshow exploring Earth's rotation and revolution around the sun. Learn that because of Earth's axis tilt we experience the seasons!
Ducksters
Ducksters: Astronomy for Kids: The Planet Earth
This site is astronomy for kids and teachers! Here students can learn about the planet Earth of the Solar System including fun facts, mass, day, year, and distance from the Sun.
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey: The Seasons
Find out what the seasons are and how they change. Through the use of excellent graphics, content explores the Earth's orbit around the sun and how sunlight reaches the earth at equinox and the winter solstice.
National Earth Science Teachers Association
Windows to the Universe: Our Solar System
Our solar system is filled with a wide assortment of celestial bodies - the Sun itself, our eight planets, dwarf planets, and asteroids - and on Earth, life itself! The inner solar system is occasionally visited by comets that loop in...
Nine Planets
The Eight Planets: Just for Kids
Here is a clear, simple picture of the solar system. Click on the names of the planets to learn more about each. Clicking on underlined terms takes you to more and more detailed scientific information.
Curated OER
Earth Orbits the Sun
This site from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration provides a fun project on rockets. "Nothing in space stands still. Everything either orbits around something else, or moves toward or away from something else. So how do...
NASA
Nasa Star Child: A Song for All Seasons
After listening to excerpts from four of the violin concertos from "The Four Seasons" by Italian composer and violinist, Antonio Vivaldi, decide which excerpt was meant to go with which season, and also decide where the earth would be in...
NASA
Nasa: Imagine the Universe: Welcome to the World of X Ray Astronomy
Site recounts how X-rays were discovered as well as who discovered them. Offers graphics, links to facts on this topic, a quiz, and teacher resources.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Kinesthetic Astronomy: Earth's Rotation
This kinesthetic activity will demonstrate concepts like rotation and orbit, clarify movement and direction, and help learners understand why earthlings see different things in the sky.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: All Planet Sizes
This illustration from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory shows the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Note that the planets are not shown at appropriate distances from the Sun.
McREL International
Mc Rel: Earth's Axis [Pdf]
A worksheet regarding the path of the Sun around the Earth and the Earth's tilt on its axis.
MadSci Network
Mad Scientist: Why High Tide Away From the Moon or Sun?
An excellent and thorough answer to the often asked question about high tide "bulges" on the side of Earth facing away from the Moon or Sun.
Rice University
Galileo Project: The Copernican System
This site from The Galileo Project of Rice University contains information relating to Copernicus's sun-centered solar system theory. Pictures are provided throughout this article along with links to additional information.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Trb 3:1: Investigation 4: Day and Night
A lesson for third graders in which they learn about the rotation of the Earth on its axis and how this movement creates day and night. They also examine the orbit of the moon about the Earth and the Earth's orbit around the sun.
Curated OER
Harvard University: The Earths Orbit
Students perform many inquiry activities related to Earth's orbit. Included are recording daily temperatures, observing the sun's path over several weeks, tracking sunrise and sunset times, and angle of sunlight. Diagrams make lessons...
Curated OER
Harvard University: The Earths Orbit
Students perform many inquiry activities related to Earth's orbit. Included are recording daily temperatures, observing the sun's path over several weeks, tracking sunrise and sunset times, and angle of sunlight. Diagrams make lessons...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A Roundabout Way to Mars
Students explore orbit transfers and, specifically, Hohmann transfers. They investigate the orbits of Earth and Mars by using cardboard and string. Students learn about the planets' orbits around the sun, and about a transfer orbit from...
NOAA
Noaa: Paleoclimatology Program: Astronomical Theory of Climate Change
Use this site to learn how the Earth's not-so-circular orbit around the sun has affected our climate over thousands of years, and continues to affect our climate now.