NASA's Spotlite Design Challenge
Student Production Teams Needed
Gather your team, your curiosity, your creativity, and video recording devices to capture observations and create a video for the NASA eClips website.
Fall Registration is Open! Submit your video by Dec. 20th!
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wants your team to produce a video for the NASA eClips™ website.
One of NASA’s goals is to improve scientific literacy, or our understanding of science. The goal of the video is to engage students in doing activities that can help change their misconceptions about a topic in science.
Challenge:
- Confront a science misconception by gathering your own evidence through observations and explorations.
- Capture your questions and findings through video.
- Share your video to challenge others to make their own observations.
NASA Spotlite videos are short (90-120 second) student-produced videos designed to address science misconceptions. The videos are used within classroom-ready 5E lessons that utilize interactive technologies. Lessons foster conceptual change and deeper understanding of scientific vocabulary.
Click the image to find out more about creating a NASA Spotlite video.
What Causes the Seasons?
The short answer is Earth's tilted axis.
Throughout the year, different parts of Earth receive the Sun's most direct rays. So, when the North Pole tilts toward the Sun, it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere. And when the South Pole tilts toward the Sun, it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
It's all about Earth's tilt!
Many people believe that Earth is closer to the Sun in the summer and that is why it is hotter. And, likewise, they think Earth is farthest from the Sun in the winter.
Although this idea makes sense, it is incorrect.
It is true that Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. It is a bit lop-sided. During part of the year, Earth is closer to the Sun than at other times. However, in the Northern Hemisphere, we are having winter when Earth is closest to the Sun and summer when it is farthest away! Compared with how far away the Sun is, this change in Earth's distance throughout the year does not make much difference to our weather.
There is a different reason for Earth's seasons.
Earth's axis is an imaginary pole going right through the center of Earth from "top" to "bottom." Earth spins around this pole, making one complete turn each day. That is why we have day and night, and why every part of Earth's surface gets some of each.
Earth has seasons because its axis doesn't stand up straight.
But what caused Earth to tilt?
Long, long ago, when Earth was young, it is thought that something big hit Earth and knocked it off-kilter. So instead of rotating with its axis straight up and down, it leans over a bit.
By the way, that big thing that hit Earth is called Theia. It also blasted a big hole in the surface. 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. So, throughout the year, different parts of Earth get the Sun’s direct rays.
Sometimes it is the North Pole tilting toward the Sun (around June) and sometimes it is the South Pole tilting toward the Sun (around December).
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.
Earth's lopsided orbit
Earth's perihelion (point closest to Sun) = 91,400,000 miles from Sun
Earth's aphelion (point farthest from Sun) = 94,500,000 miles from Sun
While that is a difference of over 3 million miles, relative to the entire distance, it isn’t much.
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.
Lunar Eclipses and Solar Eclipses
Solar Eclipse
A solar eclipse happens when the Moon gets in the way of the Sun’s light and casts its shadow on Earth. That means during the day, the Moon moves over the Sun and it gets dark. Isn’t it strange that it gets dark in the middle of the day?
This total eclipse happens about every year and a half somewhere on Earth. A partial eclipse, when the Moon doesn’t completely cover the Sun, ha
Lunar Eclipse
During a lunar eclipse, Earth gets in the way of the Sun’s light hitting the Moon. That means that during the night, a full moon fades away as Earth’s shadow covers it up.
The Moon can also look reddish because Earth’s atmosphere absorbs the other colors while it bends some sunlight toward the Moon. Sunlight bending through the atmosphere and absorbing other colors is also why s
Why don’t we have a lunar eclipse every month?
You might be wondering why we don’t have a lunar eclipse every month as the Moon orbits Earth. It’s true that the Moon goes around Earth every month, but it doesn’t always get in Earth’s shadow. The Moon’s path around Earth is tilted compared to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The Moon can be behind Earth but still get hit by light from the Sun.
In