Can they extend this one level up the food chain to predators? Track the movement of two migratory birds of prey—ospreys and turkey vultures—as they travel between North and South America over a single calendar year. Assist your students to make connections as to how populations of organisms are dependent on the living things on which they prey.
Have an idea you'd like us to post on this page? Email us. Visualizations based on aggregated data provide the unique opportunity to engage your students in various Science Practices highlighted in the Next Generation Science Standards, including asking questions, analyzing and interpreting data, and constructing explanations.
As an example, Academy educators developed sample activities such as this one and this one. Astronomy Activities You'd be surprised by how much astronomy you can learn with a light source, some painter's tape, and a can of play doh. This collection features nine of our most popular activities. Why do we have seasons? The Reason for the Seasons This website gives background information of why we have seasons and visualizes the angle of sunlight one of the reason of the seasons.
Plunge into a California kelp forest and learn about the complex, colorful ecosystems right off our coast. Travel underground for an up-close look at the ants, amoebas, and bacteria that maintain healthy soil. Browse a rich array of educational resources from the award-winning show, Habitat Earth. Our collection of educational videos will help your students visualize data and understand scientific concepts.
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Toggle Close. Search calacademy. Search the Educators section. Suggested Unit Progression. On the day of the equinox, the geometric center of the Sun's disk crosses the equator, and this point is above the horizon for 12 hours everywhere on the Earth.
However, the Sun is not simply a geometric point. Sunrise is defined as the instant when the leading edge of the Sun's disk becomes visible on the horizon, whereas sunset is the instant when the trailing edge of the disk disappears below the horizon.
At these times, the center of the disk is already below the horizon. Furthermore, atmospheric refraction or bending of the Sun's rays cause the Sun's disk to appear higher in the sky than it would if the Earth had no atmosphere.
Thus, in the morning, the upper edge of the disk is visible for several minutes before the geometric edge of the disk reachs the horizon. Similarly, in the evening, the upper edge of the disk disappears several minutes after the geometric disk has passed below the horizon. For observers within a couple of degrees of the equator, the period from sunrise to sunset is always several minutes longer than the night.
At higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, the date of equal day and night occurs before the March equinox. Daytime continues to be longer than nighttime until after the September equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere, the dates of equal day and night occur before the September equinox and after the March equinox.
The chart shown below shows the dates and times for the equinoxes and solstices through Times listed are in Eastern Time. Subtract one hour for Central Time. Source: U. Naval Observatory. The answer is YES. However, you can stand an egg on end, with a large amount of patience, on any day of the year.
This idea seems to pop up every year around the equinox. The thought that an egg can only stand on end on the spring equinox due to gravitational forces of the sun being aligned with the earth sounds like science, but it isn't. According to Chinese tradition, an egg can be made to stand on end at the precise moment winter ends and spring begins. But, the Chinese calendar had this transition occurring at a variable time each year, determined partly by the Chinese lunar month, usually in early February.
More recently, this thought became fixed to the time of the spring equinox. The underlying assumption relating to standing eggs on end is that there must exist some special gravitational balance. There are many forces acting on an egg when you try to stand it on end on a flat surface. Some people think that the gravitational pull of the Sun becomes balanced with that of the Earth to allow for this phenomenon to occur. That big hit sent a huge amount of dust and rubble into orbit.
Most scientists think that that rubble, in time, became our Moon. As Earth orbits the Sun, its tilted axis always points in the same direction. It is summer in June in the Northern Hemisphere because the Sun's rays hit that part of Earth more directly than at any other time of the year. It is winter in December in the Northern Hemisphere, because that is when it is the South Pole's turn to be tilted toward the Sun.
And, believe it or not, aphelion when Earth is farthest from the Sun occurs in July, and perihelion when we are closest occurs in January. For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere where it's summer in July and winter in January, that seems backwards, doesn't it? That just goes to prove that Earth's distance from the Sun is not the cause of the seasons.
What Causes the Seasons?
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