Why do we have seasons?
THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND
Prior Learning
In the day and night lesson students thought about day and night, and that day is warm and night is cold.
Objectives
By the end of the lesson:
- All students will know that we have seasons because the Earth is tilted
- Most students will know that the amount of heat and light we get from the sun in winter is less than that in summer.
- Some students will know that the Earth is tilted at an angle of about 23.5°
Lesson plan
Starter
Mind-map words students associate with seasons. (Simplify to summer and winter for low ability groups)
Feedback to class highlighting those to do with temperature or light differences.
Lesson resources
Main Body
Recap the Earth rotates once anticlockwise on its axis, every 24 hours.
Year
Use the football and torch to demonstrate the Earth moves round the sun and explain that this takes one year.
Seasons
Introduce concept of tilt of Earth and how that means we don’t get constant conditions throughout the year.
Use the globe to demonstrate the Earth year, focusing on the effect of the tilt.
Shine light at board at acute angle and discuss how the areas nearer the light are brighter than the areas further away. Relate this to the intensity of light on the globe in different seasons.
Label diagram to show seasons in the northern hemisphere.
You will need:
Football
Lamp or torch
Globe
Plenary
Ask the students to complete the crossword to assess their knowledge of seasons around the world.
Related Resource
Web page reproduced with the kind permission of the Met Office.
