Topic: Seasons: Earth’s rotation and orbit



Lesson Plan

Geo 203

Allison Ponce, Vanessa VanEck & Candice Mazurkiewicz

Topic: Seasons: Earth’s rotation and orbit around the Sun

Objectives: Student's will be able to model the revolution of Earth around the sun to show changes in length of days and demonstrate how the tilt of the Earth's axis is responsible for the differences in the seasons.

Grade Level: 5th

E.ES.M.6 Seasons- Seasons result from annual variations in the intensity of sunlight and length of day due to the tilt of the axis of the Earth relative to the plane of its yearly orbit around the sun.

Content Standards

E.ES.05.61 Demonstrate and explain seasons using a model.

E.ES.05.62 Explain how the revolution of the Earth around the sun defines a year.

Process Standards

S.IP.05.11 Generate scientific questions based on observations, investigations, and research.

S.IP.05.15 Construct charts and graphs from data and observations.

S.IA.05.13 Communicate and defend findings of observations and investigations using evidence.

S.RS.05.15 Demonstrate scientific concepts through various illustrations, performances, models, exhibits, and activities.

Materials:

Trade book Pond Seasons by Sue Alderson

Trade books and text books of various difficultly level on seasons and causes of seasonal change

PowerPoint on cultural explanations of seasons

The Reasons for the Seasons Think sheet

Large piece of black butcher paper

Meter stick or tape measure

Scissors

A Private Universe video

Comic map activity

Season's video -

Trippensee Planetarium Model

Final Evaluation

Engage:

Begin the lesson with reading trade book Pond Seasons by Sue Alderson. This book will be read to refresh student's memories on the differences between the four seasons and to get them thinking about the various changes in temperature, ecology, weather and hours of daylight that occur with the changing of the seasons.

After reading Pond Seasons the teacher will ask student's to begin thinking about what causes the season to change and how day length differs among the seasons.

Students will be instructed to work in predetermined groups of 3 and share with their group what they think are the causes of seasonal change. After a few minutes students will be asked to write down their ideas and turn it into the teacher.

Teacher will play a couple clips from A Private Universe video (times on video are 00:27- 3:06 & 6:42-8:28). Video addresses common misconceptions recent college graduates and high school students have in regards to the causes of the seasons on Earth. After watching the video teacher will briefly discuss what was seen and make sure students understand that the explanations they just viewed are incorrect.

Explore:

Students will get back into their groups from earlier. In these groups they will be given different objects and be asked to come up with their own model for the way the Earth moves in relation to the sun, and what this looks like during each season.

Example Objects

* 5-6 Styrofoam balls

* Flashlight

* Lamp

* Tennis balls

* Pin

* String

*Name cards for each season

* Picture

* Books

* Diagrams

* Wood skewer

Students will be given time in their groups to come up with their explanation of the seasons and how the Earth moves throughout a year.

Explain:

Teacher will play short video explaining the causes of the seasons.

Using the Trippensee Planetarium Model the teacher will demonstrate the causes of day and night, rotation of Earth, revolution of Earth, the solstices and equinoxes, axis of Earth and its relationship to the North Star, and the Earth's location at all seasons. Teacher may ask for student volunteers to show concepts with model. Common misconceptions to address include Earth is closer to sun during summer and farther away during winter, seasons happen at the same time everywhere on Earth, the sun is a solid, the sun rotates, sunlight bounces off the moon, and the tilt of the Earth causes seasons; in summer tilt makes parts closer to sun and in winter farther away.

Scientific Background

This lesson deals with the seasons of Michigan and specific characteristics of each season. Students will be exploring how the location of the Earth and sun differ during each season. Students will gain an understanding of how the Earth’s revolution around the sun defines a year.

The four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter each have specific characteristics. In the northern hemisphere, on March 21st, the vernal equinox occurs. This is a time where the Earth axis is not tilted away from or toward the sun. This occurs one other time during the year known as the autumnal equinox. This occurs on September 21st. These days mark the beginning of spring and fall respectively. Summer solstice, which occurs on June 21st, marks the first day of summer and the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The summer solstice occurs when the Earth is tilted on its north-south axis about 23 degrees, with the North Pole experiencing 24 hours of daylight. This is why on June 21st the sun appears to be directly overhead around noon; the sun is highest in the sky for those in the northern hemisphere. Winter solstice, occurring December 21st is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The Earth is tilted away from the sun 23 degrees and the North Pole will not experience any sunlight. During the winter, and on the solstice, the sun appears to be low in the sky, rising late and setting early. Because the equinoxes and solstices depend on the Earth’s tilt, the southern hemisphere experiences the opposite seasons we experience here in the northern hemisphere. For example, our summer solstice is the same day the southern hemisphere experiences their winter solstice, or their shortest day.

It takes one year for the Earth to slowly tilt from -23 degrees and 23 degrees on its vertical axis. During this time it continues to revolve around the sun. In 365.25 days, the Earth makes one complete revolution signifying a year.

It is important to clarify that the seasons do not occur because of where the Earth is in its revolution or rotation. The seasons occur because of the amount of sunlight that the Earth receives in regards to its tilt. In an area such as Michigan, the weather and temperatures vary from one season to the next. In the winter we experience colder temperatures because we are tilted away from the sun resulting in indirect sun rays hitting the northern hemisphere. In the summer we are tilted towards the sun and receive direct sun light creating warmer temperatures.

Elaborate:

Teacher will share how the Navajo Indians and Ancient Greeks explained the changes of the seasons. A short PowerPoint with the main points and some illustrations will be shown along with the different cultural explanations.

Students will be reassembled into their groups and will be asked to look over a variety of trade books and text books of varying levels of difficulty. Students will be looking for any of their vocabulary words from this lesson in the books. As a group they must find 4 of the vocabulary terms in the book and write down the sentence that they appear in on a handout. They also must find 1 new term that relates to the lesson and find its definition. The class will come together and share what words they found and read over some sentences to see if the term are used in a way they understand.

*The students will have been taking data for this project throughout the school year. Students will each be asked to record sunrise and sunset times for all four seasons. Times will be recorded in handout. Once all the times are recorded students will graph the hours of sunlight for each season on handout. Beginning of school year have student’s fill out Reasons for Seasons Thinksheet.

Around the 21st of September the teacher will ask for a volunteer. The volunteer will have their shadow traced at noon once a month (as close to the 21st as possible) throughout the school year. With help from other students the teacher will measure the height of the volunteer using a meter stick or tape measure, depending on what units of measure the teacher would like the students to work with. The volunteer's height will be recorded in a data book for the shadow activity by a chosen student.

Once the measurement has been recorded the whole class will go outside to a safe location that is also away from the shade of the building or trees. The volunteer will face south and two class members will trace the outline of the student's shadow on a large piece of black butcher paper placed behind the volunteer. The volunteer should place their arms out to the side so that their shadow has distinct arms that can be traced. Using black paper and outlining the shadow with chalk or a while liquid pen allows the shadow image to be dark like the actual shadow. (Could also just measure shadow height without tracing if prefer).

The teacher will ask a couple students to measure the shadow's height and record the data. The shadow will then be cut out and stapled onto a bulletin board graph (date vs. height). The height and date of the shadow can also be recorded on the shadow itself. As the months go by the bulletin board will act as a life size graph of the data of the shadows height each month. Student's that have excelled with the lesson or are done ahead of the rest of the class will be allowed to make a graph for the bulletin board of the number of hours of sunlight for each date that the shadow outline is collected.

As time goes by and more data is collected the student's can look for relationships or correlations between the graph of sunlight hours and the graph of the shadow's height each month. (Don’t forget to ask students to take into consideration the student's actual height each month and ask what differences the student's height makes on the shadow data?) Teacher can ask student's what happens each month? What happens with the suns behavior over time? How do sunlight hours relate to shadow height? In what seasons is the shadow the tallest or smallest? Why?

Evaluate:

Students will be given an objective evaluation. Evaluation will include multiple choice, matching, and short answer questions. Students who are more visual or hands on learners may choose to use models and verbally give answers to the teacher.

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