EARTH AND SKY - K SCIENCE

Page history last edited by Kari 1 yr ago
 
The sun can be seen only in the daytime, but the moon can be seen sometimes at night and sometimes during the day. The sun, moon, and stars all appear to move slowly across the sky.
 
 
 
 
 
Que Tal in the Current Sky
http://currentsky.com/
This means "What's up in the sky?" and it is an online monthly magazine providing astronomical information about the planets, moons, the sun, and more. Included are animations, articles, and activities. Information about monthly sky activity is updated regularly. An archive of previous issues is available as well.
This website provides observing information about the visible planets, ...
Make a Moon Flipbook
http://ology.amnh.org/astronomy/stufftodo/moon.html
This OLogy activity provides insight into the phases of the Moon and why it looks a little different each night.The activity begins with an explanation about how the Moon itself doesn't really change, just our view of it.Then kids go to "See the Moon in Action," an interactive illustration of the Moon's orbit around the Earth, in which they can see what the Moon looks like from ...

Subject:Science - Space/Astronomy
Resource type:Lesson/activity plans

 

 ACTIVITIES: MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

http://www.amnh.org/ology/astronomy/stufftodo/index.html

 

 

 
 

 

 
The Sky
http://www.seasky.org/sky.html
Take a virtual tour of the sun and universe at this site. Find links to astronomy resources, tour the solar system, learn about space exploration missions, play sky games, look at pictures from space, and take part in interactive activities. Teachers can find lesson plans as well.
 

Subject:Science - Space/Astronomy
Resource type:Lesson/activity plans
Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/the_book/index.html
This science site contains a "collection of children's online astronomy activities." Topics include the Earth's rotation, the Earth's orbit, time and calendar, maps and mapping, the solar system, and the moon. Each contains "fun explorations into astronomy as a classroom tool for learning how to theorize, experiment, and analyze data." Each activity is fully illustrated ...
 

Subject:Science - Space/Astronomy
Resource type:Handout based activities
Make a Moon Flipbook
http://ology.amnh.org/astronomy/stufftodo/moon.html
This OLogy activity provides insight into the phases of the Moon and why it looks a little different each night.The activity begins with an explanation about how the Moon itself doesn't really change, just our view of it.Then kids go to "See the Moon in Action," an interactive illustration of the Moon's orbit around the Earth, in which they can see what the Moon looks like from ...
 

Subject:Planets
Resource type:InteractiveResource
Phases of the Moon WebQuest
http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/phanover/moon_webquest_home.htm
A webquest site for teaching the phases of the moon.
 

Subject:astronomy
Resource type:Text

 

 

 

Earth and Space Science

CONTENT STANDARD D:

As a result of their activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of

  • Properties of earth materials
  • Objects in the sky
  • Changes in earth and sky

DEVELOPING STUDENT UNDERSTANDING

Young children are naturally interested in everything they see around them--soil, rocks, streams, rain, snow, clouds, rainbows, sun, moon, and stars. During the first years of school, they should be encouraged to observe closely the objects and materials in their environment, note their properties, distinguish one from another and develop their own explanations of how things become the way they are. As children become more familiar with their world, they can be guided to observe changes, including cyclic changes, such as night and day and the seasons; predictable trends, such as growth and decay, and less consistent changes, such as weather or the appearance of meteors. Children should have opportunities to observe rapid changes, such as the movement of water in a stream, as well as gradual changes, such as the erosion of soil and the change of the seasons.

Children come to school aware that earth's surface is composed of rocks, soils, water, and living organisms, but a closer look will help them identify many additional properties of earth materials. By carefully observing and describing the properties of many rocks, children will begin to see that some rocks are made of a single substance, but most are made of several substances. In later grades, the substances can be identified as minerals. Understanding rocks and minerals should not be extended to the study of the source of the rocks, such as sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic, because the origin of rocks and minerals has little meaning to young children.

Playgrounds and nearby vacant lots and parks are convenient study sites to observe a variety of earth materials. As students collect rocks and observe vegetation, they will become aware that soil varies from place to place in its color, texture, and reaction to water. By planting seeds in a variety of soil samples, they can compare the effect of different soils on plant growth. If they revisit study sites regularly, children will develop an understanding that earth's surface is constantly changing. They also can simulate some changes, such as erosion, in a small tray of soil or a stream table and compare their observations with photographs of similar, but larger scale, changes.

See the example entitled "Weather"

By observing the day and night sky regularly, children in grades K-4 will learn to identify sequences of changes and to look for patterns in these changes. As they observe changes, such as the movement of an object's shadow during the course of a day, and the positions of the sun and the moon, they will find the patterns in these movements. They can draw the moon's shape for each evening on a calendar and then determine the pattern in the shapes over several weeks. These understandings should be confined to observations, descriptions, and finding patterns. Attempting to extend this understanding into explanations using models will be limited by the inability of young children to understand that earth is approximately spherical. They also have little understanding of gravity and usually have misconceptions about the properties of light that allow us to see objects such as the moon. (Although children will say that they live on a ball, probing questions will reveal that their thinking may be very different.)

Students can discover patterns of weather changes during the year by keeping a journal. Younger students can draw a daily weather picture based on what they see out a window or at recess; older students can make simple charts and graphs from data they collect at a simple school weather station.

Emphasis in grades K-4 should be on developing observation and description skills and the explanations based on observations. Younger children should be encouraged to talk about and draw what they see and think. Older students can keep journals, use instruments, and record their observations and measurements.

GUIDE TO THE CONTENT STANDARD

Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include

PROPERTIES OF EARTH MATERIALS

  • Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and the gases of the atmosphere. The varied materials have different physical and chemical properties, which make them useful in different ways, for example, as building materials, as sources of fuel, or for growing the plants we use as food. Earth materials provide many of the resources that humans use.
  • Soils have properties of color and texture, capacity to retain water, and ability to support the growth of many kinds of plants, including those in our food supply.
  • Fossils provide evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.
OBJECTS IN THE SKY
  • The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.
  • The sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.
CHANGES IN THE EARTH AND SKY
  • The surface of the earth changes. Some changes are due to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
  • Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.
  • Objects in the sky have patterns of movement. The sun, for example, appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes slowly over the seasons. The moon moves across the sky on a daily basis much like the sun. The observable shape of the moon changes from day to day in a cycle that lasts about a month.

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