The purpose of this resource is to understand what causes the Earth's seasons with a focus on the Earth's tilt and spherical shape. Students learn how sunlight spreads over the Earth at different times of the year, emphasizing the solstices and the equinoxes. Students investigate the effect of the Earth.s tilt on the spread of sunlight by modeling different tilts using a three-dimensional polyhedron ... Full description.

The purpose of this resource is to further students' understanding of the causes of seasonal change using visualizations to compare the effects of incoming solar energy in the two hemispheres. The class reviews global visualizations of incoming sunlight and surface temperature and discusses seasonal change. Students use the visualizations to support inquiry on the differences in seasonal change in ... Full description.

The Stefan-Boltzmann Law is a fundamental law of physics. In this lesson, students will use this law and the near-ground air temperature to compute the hourly irradiance emitted by the surface of Earth. Then comparisons will be made with actual observations of this variable, called upwelling terrestrial radiation. Full description.

This lesson is designed to provide students an understanding of the extent to which radiative energy heats and cools the surface of Earth on a daily basis. Students will learn to calculate the total amount of incoming and outgoing radiation over a day. They will learn to determine how balanced the radiative system is over a particular location and try to determine whether the surface is in radiative ... Full description.

This lesson is designed to give students an enhanced understanding of the water cycle and rain as a resource, increase their measurement and data collection skills, and develop graphing and data interpretation skills. It expects that students will demonstrate the ability to measure and record rates of rainfall, evaporation, and infiltration and to graph and interpret data. The lesson provides detailed ... Full description.

In this activity, students will be reminded that when sunlight strikes the Earth's surface, energy is absorbed and the surface material is heated. But although the same amount of sunlight strikes different materials at a given location, they heat up at different rates. Students will use models to demonstrate conduction, convection, and radiation and to gain an understanding about what happens to create ... Full description.

In this activity, students will observe how atmospheric moisture moves by advection (transport by wind) and make conclusions about why the moisture changed in different parts of Oklahoma. They will view animations of wind and dewpoint temperature data, answer questions about what they see, and determine the preferred location(s) for the advection of moisture into the state and what region, if any, ... Full description.

In this activity, students will analyze data on daily solar radiation to determine the times of sunrise and sunset and the length of the day. By examining data from different locations, they will be able to describe how the length of the day changes with latitude and longitude. They will download and graph the data (or work from prepared graphs), and answer questions about what they see. Full description.

In this lesson, students are given a variety of materials and are asked to design a heat loss experiment that will result in a reasonable explanation of why whales do not have legs. Students will learn that natural selection favors a body design that is energy efficient. Full description.

This National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) site provides classroom resources about the Moon. A teacher's guide contains basic detailed information about the Moon, such as the lunar landscape, craters, and Moon rocks. The lesson plan and activities sections cover phases of the Moon, lunar landforms, a Lunar Prospector model, and orbits. Full description.