Curated OER
Ocean Currents Quiz
In this ocean worksheet, students complete a 13 question multiple choice on-line interactive quiz about ocean currents. Prior knowledge is assumed.
American Association of Physics Teachers
Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Earth Orbit Model
Nicolaus Copernicus developed the theory of Earth's orbit around the sun demonstrated in this science simulation.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Reasons for the Seasons
Why do some regions experience full-time heat while others are reckoning with frigid temperatures and snow? And why are the seasons reversed in the two hemispheres? Rebecca Kaplan explains how the shape of the Earth's orbit around the...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Fifth Grade Science: Earth Science: Earth's Motion in Space
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Discusses the motion of the Earth with its day and night cycle, the seasons, the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and its year-long cycle.
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.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Study Jams! Science: Our Solar System: A Day on Earth
A video and a short multiple-choice quiz on how the Earth's tilt on its axis, its rotation, and its orbit around the Sun give us a 24-hour day, a 365-day year, and our seasons.
NASA
Nasa: The Space Place: Orbits 'R' Us
Learn about how Earth orbits the sun and how satellites orbit the Earth. Discover the different types of satellites such as GOES and POES and what they are used to monitor.
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.
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.
NASA
Nasa: The Space Place: What's a Barycenter?
This site from NASA helps in explaining a barycenter. "In the case of the Earth and the Sun, both bodies actually revolve, or spin, around the center of the mass between them. This point is called the barycenter."
E-learning for Kids
E Learning for Kids: Egypt: How Do the Sun, Moon and Earth Revolve Around Each Other?
Omar helps his parents sell things at the market. Join him while he learns about the relationship of the Sun, Moon, and Earth.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Orbital Motion
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Orbital motion and why it occurs, and the orbits of the Earth around the sun and the moon around the Earth.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Wonderville Media
Wonderville: Planets
There are eight planets in orbit around our Sun. These planets form our solar system. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There are also rocks, moons, comets, and other objects going...
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...
Harvard University
Harvard Smithsonian: Everyday Classroom Tools
The focus of this series of lessons is to engage students in an exploration of the world around them. The emphasis is on inquiry as students learn about the earth, sun, light, shapes and more.