Our Tilted Earth: The Story behind the Seasons!

Apr 20 2011

Source: mfrank78

Summary Information

Keywords:

axis, seasons, hemisphere, seasons, globe, temperature, climate, climatogram, rotation, revolution, earth, sun, summer, winter, spring, fall, equator

Topic:

Earth Science

Target Grade (Ages):

Grade 8 (Ages 13-14)

Estimated Time Required:

less than 1 hour

Diversity Indicators:

ADHD: Could be a monitor. This is a great lesson for kinesthetic learners. This might be difficult for students with mobility issues. Plan accordingly.

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LESSON

Goals and Prerequisites

Goals:

To establish understanding about Earth’s seasons
To introduce students to the principles of revolution and seasons on Earth

Prerequisites:

Students will need to

Be familiar with the following vocabulary terms: Earth’s axis, hemispheres, rotation, revolution, and oblate spheroid. (round, but slightly flat at the poles)
Understand the pieces of evidence that we know earth is an oblate spheroid
Be exposed to the mathematical concept of degrees
Understand how to create/analyze bar graphs.

Instructional Objective(s)

Students will be able to:

Model Earth’s seasons using a flash light, an inflatable globe, and a thermometer
Verbalize the differences of Earth’s tilt in the summer and the winter
Determine the season based on the degrees that Earth is tilted
Visualize the reason for seasons by observing videos.

Instructional Resources

Background:

What are the reasons for our seasons? Before we dive into the seasons, we need to understand rotation and revolution.

The Earth is an oblate spheroid (round and slightly flat at the poles). The Earth rotates one time on its axis every day. You can model this by turning around. Revolution is the movement of Earth around the Sun. The earth orbits, or revolves around the Sun one time each year.

There is a common misconception that the Earth’s distance from the sun causes seasons, but the reason for our seasons is actually the Earth’s tilt. During the northern hemisphere winter months (December-February), the Earth is tilted such that the Southern hemisphere (tropic of Capricorn 23.5 degrees south) receives direct light from the sun, and the northern hemisphere receives indirect sunlight. During summer in the northern hemisphere, the Earth is tilted such that the northern hemisphere (tropic of cancer 23.5 degrees north) receives more direct sunlight.

For more information, visit http://www.morehead.unc.edu/Shows/EMS/seasons.htm

Materials:

Inflatable globe
Heat lamp/Flashlight
Thermometer (taped)
Graph worksheet
Seasons lab worksheet
Seasons rubric
Lesson PowerPoint

Our Tilted Earth (ppt)

Teacher Tryscience Graphing (doc)

Teachers Tryscience Worksheet (doc)

teachertryscience_rubric.doc

Procedure:

Please review the Lesson PowerPoint.
Give students the double sided Graph Worksheet. Students will create a bar graph of the temperature of Brazil and California during the northern hemisphere winter. Explain to students that these locations are on opposite hemispheres.
Students will write an explanation of the differences between these two locations in the winter.
Students will watch the video clip, What Causes Seasons on Earth, and answer the following questions:

Why do we have seasons on Earth?
Why do some locations have different seasons than others?

Split students into groups of 4. For each group:

Student 1 will hold the inflatable globe.
Student 2 will hold the flashlight.
Student 3 will measure the temperature of New York (or whatever part of the world you choose) using the thermometer that has been taped to the globe.
Student 4 will record the information into the table and sketch a picture.

Student 1 will tilt the north part of the globe to the flashlight. The temperature will be measured and recorded with a picture. Students will write down the season that they think is occurring in New York.
Repeat step 6 with the southern part of the globe getting the flashlight. Students will still be measuring the temperature in New York.
Repeat step 6 with the equator getting the flashlight. Students will still be measuring the temperature in New York.
Students should record their observations.
Higher Level Questions: What happens to the amount of daylight as the temperature increases? What else did you notice?

Safety information: There will be many student groups working at once, so remind students to be aware of the other groups and the objects around them. Also, if you are using heat lamps, remind students to use caution since lamps can get very hot.

Extensions

Lessons on oblate spheroid, rotation, revolution. Brainpop.com is a good source of scientific information.

Assessments and Rubrics

Please see Seasons Rubric.

Our Tilted Earth Rubric (PDF)

Our Tilted Earth Rubric (XLS)

teachertryscience_rubric.doc

Credits

Marc Frank: creator of this lesson plan (Please email me about this lesson!)

Resources came from:

Climatogram data on Brazil and California:http://science.berlinwall.org/files/bhs_science/Climatogram%20graph%20activity.doc
Blank climatogram:http://www.fg.k12.ri.us/webpages/dmoscarelli/files/Exploring%20Climatograms%2009-10.doc
Original seasons lab: http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=626
Thumbnail Image source: http://www.divulgence.net/Tropic%20of%20Cancer.html
Lego Picture Source: http://www.patzwald.de/raumfahrt.html

RESOURCES

Original Resources

Our Tilted Earth (ppt)

Our Tilted Earth Rubric (PDF)

Our Tilted Earth Rubric (XLS)

Teacher Tryscience Graphing (doc)

Teachers Tryscience Worksheet (doc)

teachertryscience_rubric.doc

Contributed Resources

Contribute a Resource

Click the button above if you would like to contribute a resource to this lesson.

STANDARDS

Click here to add Standards

New York State Standards

Standard Type: State New York

Standard: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/mst/pub/intersci.pdf

Key Idea 1: The Earth and celestial phenomena can be described by principles of relative motion and perspective.

1.1h The apparent motions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars across the sky can be explained by Earth’s rotation and revolution. Earth’s rotation causes the length of one day to be approximately 24 hours. This rotation also causes the Sun and Moon to appear to rise along the eastern horizon and to set along the western horizon. Earth’s revolution around the Sun defines the length of the year as 365 1/4 days.
1.1i The tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation and the revolution of Earth around the Sun cause seasons on Earth. The length of daylight varies depending on latitude and season.
1.1j The shape of Earth, the other planets, and stars is nearly spherical.

Key Idea 2: Explain how the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), and lithosphere (land) interact, evolve, and change.

2.2j Climate is the characteristic weather that prevails from season to season and year to year.

Your rating

Average: 4.5 (2 votes)

Comments

Irishganesh

Plainview, New York, United States

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October 26, 2011 - 11:10am

Great idea!

This topic is a very difficult for students to grasp. I've never seen it approached using temperature as part of a lesson- which makes complete sense. I would do this in conjunction with the AIMS activity "pasta parallels". This lesson uses angel hair pasta to represent the sun's rays; a good visual that would represent the sun's rays in another manner. I think that the two lessons would be good to do together for students in younger grades or for those students who are not grasping the concept. For this posted lesson- I would love to see more handouts/worksheets to help reinforce what the students are learning. Otherwise I think the activity itself is a great idea. Thanks!

raider78

San Angelo, Texas, United States

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May 20, 2014 - 3:59pm

The handouts were amazing and

The handouts were amazing and very well laid out. I really liked the way it was introduced with the PowerPoint and video clips. Although sometimes we tend to start this type of lesson with a hands-on engage or demonstration it seemed more meaningful for the students to begin it in with the steps that this lesson was arranged. My students we very engaged in each part of the lesson. I did not feel that this was a lesson that could be done in the “Less than One Hour” timeframe. This lesson took me two class periods and could have easily taken more. I would recommend this upgraded to the “1-2 Hour” or “2-3 Hour” time range.

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Great idea!

The handouts were amazing and

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Comments

Great idea!

The handouts were amazing and