Middle School Inquiry Lab on Rotation and Revolution in Seasons
In this lab students will create a model to demonstrate and describe what causes Earth to go through seasons.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- Why does Earth have seasons?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
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Materials List:
- Styrofoam ball
- flashlight
- push pin
- wooden dowel
- markers
PROCEDURE:
For this lab, students will create a model of the Earth. Using a Styrofoam ball and a flashlight, students will observe how the revolutions of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth on its axis causes seasons around the planet.
Students will document what is happening when the direct sunlight is on the Northern Hemisphere, and vice versa. When students have completed at least one revolution, they will use their lab sheet to diagram the Earth’s location at certain points in orbit and identify the season that is being shown.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here are a few that come with the lab:
- If the Earth was not tilted on its axis, would the seasons change or stay the same? Why?
- Which step represents the summer in the Northern Hemisphere? How do you know?
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- How would you explain why North America is warmer in June and colder in December?
- Why is it winter in the Southern Hemisphere when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere?
- What would happen if Earth did not tilt on its axis?
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
NGSS: MS ESS1-1 – Develop and use a model of the Earth-Sun-Moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and seasons.
