Vocabulary
This is the path one object takes as it moves around another object in space.
What is an orbit?
This star is at the center of our solar system and provides Earth with light and heat.
What is the Sun?
This predictable pattern happens because Earth rotates once every 24 hours.
What are day and night?
This force pulls objects toward Earth and keeps us from floating away.
What is gravity?
Scientists use these to represent objects or events that are too large, too small, or too complex to study directly.
What are models?
This force pulls objects toward one another and keeps planets and moons moving in their paths.
What is gravity?
Earth takes about 24 hours to complete one rotation. If Earth stopped rotating, what pattern would change on Earth? Explain why.
What is: The pattern of day and night would change because rotation is what causes different parts of Earth to face toward or away from the Sun.
During the summer in New York, the days are longer than the nights because of this.
What is Earth's tilt as it revolves around the Sun?
Earth spins on an imaginary line called this. This movement causes day and night.
What is an axis?
A globe is a model of Earth. Name one thing a globe helps scientists or students understand.
What is Earth's shape, the locations of continents and oceans, the equator, or how Earth rotates? (Any one correct answer earns points.)
This word describes Earth's spinning on its axis, which causes day and night.
What is rotation?
We can see the Moon because it does this with sunlight.
What is reflects sunlight?
If the Moon is waxing, what pattern will you notice over the next several nights?
What is that the visible, lit part of the Moon will appear to get larger each night?
Earth travels around the Sun in this type of motion. One complete trip takes about 365 days.
What is orbiting?
A model shows Earth rotating while a flashlight shines on one side. What phenomenon does this model explain?
What are day and night?
Earth's movement around the Sun is called this. It takes about 365 days to complete.
What is revolution?
Explain why people in New York experience daytime while people on the opposite side of Earth experience nighttime.
What is: Because Earth rotates on its axis, the side facing the Sun has daylight while the side facing away from the Sun has nighttime?
A student observes the constellation Orion in the winter but cannot find it during the summer. Why does this happen?
What is: As Earth revolves around the Sun, the nighttime side of Earth faces different parts of space during different seasons, so different constellations are visible?
Earth takes about 24 hours to complete one rotation. If Earth stopped rotating, what pattern would change on Earth? Explain why.
What is: The pattern of day and night would change because rotation is what causes different parts of Earth to face toward or away from the Sun.
A student uses a lamp, a ball, and a smaller foam ball to model the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The Moon appears half-lit from Earth's point of view. What evidence does this model provide?
What is that the Moon's phases occur because we see different amounts of the sunlit half of the Moon as it orbits Earth?
During the first half of the lunar cycle, the Moon appears to grow larger each night. This vocabulary word describes that change.
What is waxing?
A student notices that the Moon looks different each night for one month. Explain why the Moon appears to change shape even though its actual shape stays the same.
What is: As the Moon orbits Earth, we see different amounts of the sunlit half of the Moon. This causes the Moon's phases.
A class records the time of sunrise every morning for six months. They notice the Sun rises earlier in the spring than it did in the winter. What causes this predictable pattern?
What is: Earth's tilted axis and its revolution around the Sun change the amount of daylight throughout the year, causing sunrise and sunset times to change?
A student says, "The planets stay in space because there is no gravity." Use scientific evidence to explain why this statement is incorrect.
What is: Gravity exists throughout space and pulls objects toward one another. The Sun's gravity keeps planets in orbit, and Earth's gravity keeps the Moon in orbit around Earth.
Two students disagree. Student A says the Moon changes shape each month. Student B says the Moon stays the same shape, but we see different parts of it. Which student is supported by scientific evidence, and why?
What is Student B? The Moon's shape does not change. As the Moon orbits Earth, we see different portions of its sunlit side, creating the phases of the Moon.