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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

Third graders draw what they believe is in space on a dry erase board. In groups, they are given a beaker half filled with water and they add a teaspoon of oil, observing the different layers that form. To end the lesson, they identify...

In this earth, sun, and moon practice worksheet, students examine 6 pictures and follow the instructions to shade in the part of the Earth that is in darkness.

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...

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. 

Size within the solar system is a difficult thing for pupils to imagine. Using everyday objects, they build models to show the scale between the sun, moon, and Earth. They situate their props in proportional distances between the objects...

It's no fun catching a fungus. Scholars first investigate how the seasons affect the angle of the sun and the lengths of shadows. They then apply right triangle trigonometry to determine the height of trees based on their shadows to...

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...

First graders explore why the sun and moon seems to disappear and reappear creating day and night.

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.

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...

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,...

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. 

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.

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...

Seventh-graders solve 20 various types of problems related to ratio and rate. They write ratios in simplest form for each given statement, to compare the area of two figures, and write two ratios equivalent to each ratio. Pupils express...

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...

For this sun's diameter worksheet, students use a photograph taken by the SOHO satellite of the sun showing a change in diameter from one month to another. Students find the average diameter of the sun, they determine the percent change...