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Weather and Climate
It's hot today, but is that the weather or the climate? This colorful presentation isolates both concepts to allow for better understanding by covering the positioning of the planet, making comparisons of land versus water, and looking...
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Orienting a Photovoltaic Cell
Students explore the optimum angle for orienting a solar collector relative to the rays of incoming sunlight. They review equinoxes, solstices, and various locational ideas before students investigate using meters, light sources, and...
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Seasons' Journey: As the World Turns
Fourth graders explore the earth's revolution around the sun and the changes in weather that follow this motion.
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The Reasons for the Seasons
Young scientists use a globe and a light to simulate the rotation of the earth and sun to show the seasons. Additionally, they simulate direct sunlight and indirect sunlight showing intensity of the sun, and answer questions based on...
Polar Bears International
Top of the World
Learn about polar bears and the Arctic circle with a lesson about the countries and conditions of the region. After examining how the area differs from Antarctica, kids explore climates, animals, and geographical position of countries in...
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What Causes Day and Night?
Why do we have four seasons? A series of questions about the Earth's orbit and its impact on seasons challenge Earth science students.The second page of the resource has nine multiple choice questions, such as "One year on Earth is one...
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From Light to Dark and Back
Experiment with light and dark in a series of interactive activities that lead up to reading and writing poetry. Class members have the opportunity to observe their feelings while sitting in the light and dark and to play with shadow...
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Jeopardy - Earth Sciences
Questions about water, weather, geology, astronomy, and the scientific process make up this Jeopardy game. It is a pretty well-rounded set of slides, although you may want to be aware that a few of the questions are specific to the state...
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What Causes the Seasons?
Third graders investigate why the seasons occur throughout the year. They read a traditional wisdom story pertaining to the seasons. They create their own wisdom stories about the seasons and act them out for the class.
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Fall Lesson Plans
Fall lesson plans can combine science, history, and writing into an enticing combination.
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Reasons for Seasons
Students track photoperiod (daylight hours) over time and predict how daylight change during different seasons. This helps build their understanding that ever-changing daylight is the driving force for migrations and all other seasonal...
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Was Kepler Correct?
Students investigate the elliptical orbit around the Sun. They use the information gathered to measure the distance to the Sun from the closest orbital point and the farthest orbital point.
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Geology Word List
In this science worksheet, students review the vocabulary words for the separate categories related to the concept of geology.
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Weather Word Problems
In this weather activity, students complete 5 short answer questions comparing and contrasting daylight hours at different locations around the world.
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How Much Longer is the Day?
For this daylight hours worksheet, learners use pictures given to write a number sentence and calculate the answers. This worksheet has 3 word problems.
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Working with Sinusoidal Models
In this sinusoidal model worksheet, students use the sinusoidal model to solve word problems about the hours of daylight in Anchorage, Alaska. Students complete 5 problems.
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Stargazers And Skywatchers
Students recognize the daily motion of the Sun across the sky, defining the main directions of east, west, south and north. They see how the first calendars were based on changes in the Sun's noontime elevation, and on locations of...
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Stargazers and Skywatchers
Students observe the daily motions of the sun and relate them to the functions of a sundial. They determine the locations of sunrises and sunsets and determine how the elevation of the sun effects temperature.
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Visiting the Arctic Circle
Students familiarize themselves with the Arctic Circle by locating it on a globe and wall map. They discuss they climate in the North Pole and the reasons for its low temperatures. They compare and contrast the climates of the Arctic...
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Tracking Sunrise and Sunset
Students collect, record, and graph the sunrise and sunset times. They explain how the relationship between the tilt of Earth's axis and its yearly orbit around the sun produces the seasons.
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Navigation
Students study the basic methods for finding one's position on Earth. Latitude can be deduced from the height above the horizon of the pole star or of the noontime Sun, while longitude requires an accurate clock giving universal time.
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The Celestial Sphere
Pupils are introduced to the celestial sphere, describing its apparent rotation and the special role of the pole star.
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Seasons in 3D: Student Exploration
In this seasons exploration worksheet, students review vocabulary and answer prior knowledge questions, then use the Seasons in 3D Gizmo to complete exploration activities.
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Properties of Earth: Word Search
In this word search worksheet, students search for words related to the Earth, the sun and it's movements. Terms include seasons, features, and movements.