American Association of Physics Teachers
Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Ballistics and Orbits Model
Experience a simulation of ballistic trajectories in relationship to Earth's orbit. Java 1.5 or more recent is required.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: What Causes the Gulf Stream?
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]
University of Chicago
University of Chicago: What's Your Slant? Sun and Shadows
This fun activity helps you to understand the movement of the sun by studying shadows.
E-learning for Kids
E Learning for Kids: Science: Rio De Janeiro: Day and Night: The Sun
Gabriella lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Help her learn more about the sun and identify the properties of the sun.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Reflections of a Star
This simple lesson allows students to work cooperatively in determining the angular diameter of the Sun.
Libre Text
Libre Text: The Coriolis Force
The Coriolis force is a central element of the dynamics of ocean and atmosphere flows.
Curated OER
Earth Rotates Toward the East
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...
Science Struck
Science Struck: A Scientific Explanation to What Causes Day and Night
Explains how the rotation and the axial tilt of the Earth are responsible for the phenomenon of day and night. Provides information about the Sun, the solar system, and the Earth, and how the circumference of the Earth was first measured...
Cornell University
Cornell University: Astronomy: Eratosthenes
Learn how Greek mathematician Eratosthenes used geometry to estimate the circumference of the Earth.
NASA
Nasa: Heliophysics: New Science of the Sun Solar System Connection
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.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Weather
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart discusses the weather, sun, earth, day, night, and rotation.
University of Illinois
University of Illinois Extension: Tree House Weather Kids: What Causes the Season?
Explore what causes the change of seasons on the Earth.
Curated OER
Global Wind Pattern on the Earth Without an Ocean, Axiz Tilt, and Rotation.
Global wind pattern on the earth without an ocean, axiz tilt, and rotation.
Ohio State University
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Common Misconceptions About Day and Night
Misconceptions about the causes of seasons and day and night are common through all ages. Use the information on this site to help your students understand these concepts. Included are links to many resources and lesson plans for...
Math Is Fun
Math Is Fun: A Day
How long is a day? What do most children do during certain hours of the day? What is day? This site offers the answers to these questions, lists the days of the week, and provides a hour-by-hour listing of what a typical kid's day...
Other
Electric Sky: Vernal Equinox
This site, created by an amateur who has studied astronomy for thirty years, provides a scholarly explanation of the vernal equinox. Links to definitions of significant terms.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Space
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart describes what causes the seasons, explains the moon's phases, and introduces what a constellation is. It utilizes the Activotes to help describe the phenomena.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Sunspots on the Move
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...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Glaciers, Water and Wind, Oh My!
This hands-on activity explores five different forms of erosion (chemical, water, wind, glacier and temperature). Students rotate through stations and model each type of erosion on rocks, soils and minerals. The students record their...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Gyroscopic Effects: Vector Aspects of Angular Momentum
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...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Giving Rise to the Jet Stream
This interactive activity from NOVA Online uses animation and graphics to offer a detailed explanation of the jet stream. A thorough account is given of the role played by the Sun's heat and Earth's shape and rotation, among other factors.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Tracking the Sun: Observing the Path of the Sun Throughout the Year
Over the course of the school year, students collect weekly data about the sun's position at a specific time of day, resulting in creating a figure "8" that shows the path of the sun called an analemma.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Aaas: Project 2061: Topic: Weather and Climate Ii: Seasonal Differences
[Free Registration/Login Required] Create a science test that checks for student understanding in science, for common misconceptions, as well as for correct ideas. This is a list of key ideas related to Weather and Climate II: Seasonal...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Trb 3:1 Investigation 6 Celestial Model
Third graders will gain an understanding of why stars appear to move across the night sky.