This kinesthetic activity will demonstrate concepts like rotation and orbit, clarify movement and direction, and help students understand why earthlings see different things in the sky.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Summarizes the key points about how our understanding of the Earth's movements evolved from ancient times and what we know today. Includes some questions to check...

An ebook filled with information and classroom activities covering several astrological topics such as the Earth's rotation and the solar system. Many tips and teaching tools are available to aid in discovering what the sky has to offer.

In this science fair project, use a globe and a heat lamp to investigate how the angle of the Sun affects global warming. This project includes the objective, background questions, a list of all the materials you'll need, and the...

Describes and calculates the precession of a gyroscope and also discusses the precession of the Earth's axis. Includes several pictures, diagrams, formulas, and details.

This task gives students a chance to explore the effects of the Earth's tilt and rotation using a simple geometric model of Earth-Sun interaction that shows why the seasons occur. Aligns with G-MG.A.1.

Discover interesting facts about Earth's partner, the moon, which is more like a double planet than a planet and a moon.

Understand the rotation of the earth and the appearance of movement of other bodies in the sky.

Explore the mythology, structure, observational history, gravitational force, and orbit of Earth's Moon.

Students use the process of journaling to make discoveries about the moon. This activity involves having students write observations about the moon in a journal. Using their observations they go to an online resource and choose...

This video segment adapted from NASA uses animation to illustrate the properties of meteor showers and comets. Included is are visualizations of a comet's tail and of Earth passing through a debris stream left behind by meteoroids.

In this illustrated essay from NOVA Online, explore the cyclical process of weather creation and the effects of El Nino on the global weather system.

This interactive activity from ZOOM offers a chance to experiment with a virtual pendulum and to see how it can be influenced by a variety of factors.

Make a sundial and learn how to use it.

The students work in teams of two to discover the relative positions of the Earth, Sun and Moon that produce the different phases of the Moon. The students will be given a Styrofoam ball that they will attach to a pencil so that it looks...

This video segment adapted from NOVA uses satellite imagery to illustrate the Gulf Stream's path and animations to explain how atmospheric phenomena cause it to move. [1:51]

This site from NASA lists common and uncommon misconceptions about Sun-Earth Science. Site also provides links to activities and lesson plans as well as background reading.

The following videos show sunspots using wavelengths of light that the human eye cannot see. Watch sunspots emerging on the earth's surface, a sunspot moving across the earth's surface, and the rotation of the sun as a sunspot evolves...

From a chapter on Rotational Motion and Angular Momentum in a Physics textbook. This section of the chapter explains how to use the right-hand rule to determine direction for angular velocity, momentum, and torque. Also discusses the...

Third graders will gain an understanding of why stars appear to move across the night sky.

Leon Foucault, a French physicist much better known for his pendulum demonstrating the rotation of the Earth, also created in 1855 a device that illustrated how eddy currents work. (Java tutorial)

The concept of jet streams is explained on this site. Read about why jet stream winds blow from west to east, what the polar jet and subtropical jet are, the role that the rotation of the Earth plays, etc.

This simulation allows the user to see the sun's arc in the sky anywhere in the world at any time. By changing the season settings the user can see how seasons affect the height of the sun's arc.