What does math have to do with the behavior of the earth and sun? Learn how the movement of celestial bodies has influenced the development of trigonometry. Scholars connects the details in mathematics to their...

Why do shadows look different in the summer than in the winter? What causes day and night? How can a sundial be used to tell time? Answer these questions and more through two engaging lessons about light and shadows. Fourth and fifth...

Math and science come together in this cross-curricular astronomy lesson plan on planetary motion. Starting off with a hands-on activity that engages the class in exploring the geometry of circles and ellipses, this lesson...

Geometry meets earth science as high schoolers investigate the cause and features of the four seasons. The effects of Earth's axis tilt features prominently, along with both the rotation of the earth about the axis and its orbit...

Who needs the daylight to simulate a lunar eclipse? Astronomers model the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon to explain the necessary conditions for a lunar eclipse. Investigators cut and label a paper plate to represent the Earth and...

Mathematicians can be famous, too! Introduce your class to Eratosthenes with a reading passage. After they complete the passage, learners respond to five questions, some of which require opinions and others reading comprehension skills.

The class gets to practice being a mathematician in ancient Greece, performing geometric application problems in the way of Eratosthenes. After following the steps of the great mathematicians, they then compare the (surprisingly...

How many birthdays do leap year babies have in a lifetime? Learners explore the question among others in a lesson focused on different calendar systems. Given explanations of the Julian, Gregorian, and Martian calendars, individuals use...

In this Earth's rotation and day length worksheet, students are given a table with the period of geological time, the age of the Earth and the total days per year. Students calculate the number of hours per day in each geological era,...

Fourth graders measure the change in the size of their shadow over time. They visit a fixed structure and record the date, the time, and the measurement of the length of their shadow. They do this over the course of the school year. They...

Here is a fantastic, nine-page, multi-session lesson plan on the Zia Sun Symbol (found on the New Mexico state flag), and the seasons of the Earth. Everything you need to implement the lesson is here, and the many engaging activities are...

In this hunt for planets worksheet, students read about the Kepler satellite used to detect exoplanets. Students solve 6 problems including drawing a sun disk and determining the scale in kilometers/millimeter, finding the area of the...

Students explore the average surface temperature of planets. They use the Planet Temperature Calculator to find the average temperature. Students explore how the distance from the sun affects the Earth's average surface temperature. They...

Students view NASA images and movies of Venus, Earth, and Mars to deduce weather patterns and manipulate computer models to test competing hypotheses. They manipulate computer models to investigate the influence of solar distance and...

In this relative sizes of the sun and stars learning exercise, high schoolers determine the relative sizes of the Earth, Jupiter, the Sun and other stars. Students compare the size of stars given ratios of one star to another.

High schoolers explore the possibility of being on Mars and being able to identify the Earth.  In this space activity students complete a set of calculations to see if this is possible. 

How quickly does light travel long distances? A short video simulates light going from the earth to the moon at two different paces. Scholars relate the distance to the rate to understand which simulation is correct.

Third graders discuss how Aristotle concluded that the Earth was round. As a class, they review theories about the Earth's shape and describe how life on Earth would be different if it were flat. Individually, they make a moon book in...

Students use principles of geometry to measure the circumference of the Earth. In this applied geometry lesson, students use mathematics to determine scientific information. They make measurements, calculate the central angle, and...

Ninth graders study the sun and its distance from Earth.  In this Sun's diameter instructional activity students examine how measurement data permits accurate measurement of the sun's diameter. 

Does the space shuttle have an odometer? Maybe, but all that is needed to determine the distance to the moon is a little geometry! The lesson asks scholars to sketch the relationship of the Earth and moon using shadows of an eclipse....

Students explore how the angle and distance of an object can change it's temperature. After reviewing how the position of the Earth affects the temperature of the planet, student groups design and perform an experiment to test how...

High schoolers examine how Earth's rotation causes daily cycles in solar energy using a microset of satellite data to investigate the Earth's daily radiation budget and locating map locations using latitude and longitude coordinates.

In this Sun-Earth system worksheet, students fill in blanks with the proper terms from a given list to complete a summary of the relationship between the Sun and the Earth. A major topic includes how solar storms effect the Earth and the...