Teaching about seasons to middle school students can be a challenge! There are so many misconceptions about what causes seasons on the Earth, including that many believe it has to do with how close the Sun is to the Earth. Some believe that it’s because of the Earth’s rotation. Some even believe that the Sun changes in size!
No worries though. Your middle school students are not the only ones that may struggle with the concept of what makes seasons change. Even these Harvard graduates have a hard time coming up with the cause. So, what actually causes seasons? Seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth. As the titled and rotating Earth revolves around the Sun, the axis stays in the same direction. As it travels around the Sun, the part of the Earth, where the most direct rays hit, changes. As a result, we get seasons.
Luckily for your students, I have some ideas that will help them grasp this concept! In this post, I share some ways to introduce the topic of seasons and what causes them that will help your students WONDER and want to learn more. Then, I share a lesson about seasons that will reduce cognitive load, helping them to better retain the material. Finally, I share some ideas to WIDEN their knowledge and will be a great addition to your seasons lesson plan.
Introduction to What Causes Seasons
In order to gain student buy-in to any topic, I suggest you use a WONDER activity. This is the hook into the lesson. Once you have a student interested in a topic, the rest is a piece of cake because they are internally motivated to learn. Here are some examples of WONDER activities to use when you are teaching about seasons and why they occur!
Addressing Misconceptions Post-It Activity
One of my favorite things to do to get students thinking about a topic is a good post-it note activity that will spark discussion.
I like this approach because it gives every student a chance to think about a question and come up with an answer. As a teacher, it allows you to activate prior knowledge and meet students where they are!
This is a great discussion starter when teaching about seasons.
So, what can you do?
- Give each of your students one post-it note.
- Ask them the question, “What causes Earth to have seasons?”.
- Allow them time to answer the question on the post-it note.
- Once they are finished, call them up to place the post-it note in a designated place in your room.
- Once you have them all, you or a student volunteer can read out some of the answers and address any patterns in the answers.
- This is a great way to start a discussion. Did anyone answer correctly? Can you spot misconceptions?
Tilt and Revolution Demonstration
Another great thing to do when teaching about seasons is to model the Earth moving around the Sun using a flashlight or lamp and a globe.
This is a great visual for students to see BEFORE they dive into the content. If they have this visualization in their head while learning vocabulary and other content, they will have the right schema to build on!
- Once you have your materials, set the light in the middle (to represent the Sun) and your globe on the outside (of course, representing the Earth).
- You can manipulate the globe around the lamp to represent the seasons. You can show students summer and winter first, then move on to spring and autumn. You can also show them why the Northern and Southern Hemispheres experience opposite seasons at the same time.
Here is a great video to give you an idea on how to best present this model to your students.
Exploring Daylight Length Data
Data is packed with opportunities to spark curiosity in your students.
One WONDER activity that you can try with your students is to explore daylight length data. There are a few options to do this!
- You can have students to graph, or at least view a graph, of daylight hours in their city or town. You can access day/night length data on the time and date website. You can collect a few data points for students to graph on their own or you can show them the graph.
- Another option would be to observe daylight length data in different cities around the world and compare. For example, Washington DC and Anchorage, Alaska graphs look very different. Have your students explore why this is!
Teaching About Seasons – Interactive Lesson
Once your students are curious and have a little bit of prior knowledge on this topic, it’s time to dive into the lesson. This is where they can really dive into the content and the vocabulary associated such as solstices, equinoxes, the degree of Earth’s tilt, and more!
Interactive lessons were created to teach students the content (or review) while reducing student cognitive load. If students are given too much information at one time, they don’t learn anything at all. That’s why interactive lessons are so great! They use the 7 steps to help students retain information.
For example, these lessons included content that is segmented so that students can process the information before moving on. They also take out unnecessary information, highlight important information, along with other research-based strategies.
In this Seasons Interactive Lesson, students will learn about how the Earth-Moon-Sun system impacts the seasons. They will learn about how sunlight in spread over the Earth, predictable patterns, the reason for the seasons, rotation and revolution, solstice and equinoxes, and more!
Embedded throughout the lesson are activities for students to process the information. This includes a KWL chart, outside resource exploration, drag-and-drop activities, and more!
Teaching Seasons Activities to WIDEN Knowledge
At this point, your students will have gained a lot of knowledge about the cause of seasons; however, if time allows, it’s always great to extend student knowledge so that the content can stick even better. Here are some fun ways to WIDEN student knowledge when teaching about seasons in your middle school classroom.
Seasons 3-D Model
Whether or not you complete the demo mentioned above, this will be a great activity for students to do on their own to display their understanding of seasons.
Gather some materials such as cardboard, plates, construction paper, markers, Styrofoam balls, etc. and let students create a model to represent seasons and what causes them. Let their creativity take over!
Seasons Online Simulation
Models are absolutely wonderful when it comes to topics such as these. Don’t have time for a 3-D model when you’re teaching about seasons? What about an online model? There are so many options for students to check out such as these from Earth Space Lab, SEPUP, and UNL Astronomy Education.
Students can explore one of these models to solidify their understanding and gain another perspective of how this whole Earth-Sun-Moon system works!
I created this worksheet to go along with most online simulation for seasons. Along with the online model, this assignment will help students understand the degree of Earth’s tilt, relative motion and relative position of the Sun and the Earth, seasons, equinoxes, solstices, and more!
This seasons activity is great to use with most online simulations! I think it’s important to make sure students explore on their own before they start answering questions. Give students a chance to learn how to use the simulation before diving into the worksheet.
Study Seasons at Different Latitudes
Another fun exploration would be to assign students to groups and have students create a presentation based on researching the seasons in different latitudes.
Examples of a mix of cities to explore would be:
- Quito, Ecuador (Latitude: 0°)
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Latitude: 22°S)
- Cairo, Egypt (Latitude: 30°N)
- Paris, France (Latitude: 48°N)
- Anchorage, Alaska, USA (Latitude: 61°N)
- Tromsø, Norway (Latitude: 69°N)
- Sydney, Australia (Latitude: 34°S)
- Barrow, Alaska, USA (Latitude: 71°N)
You can ask students to explore questions such as:
- What are the main seasons that people experience in this city?
- How do the seasons in this city compare to those where you live?
- Are there periods of 24-hour daylight or darkness? If so, when?
- What are the average temperatures during each season?
- What are the main environmental features or challenges associated with the seasons in this city?
You can have students present in any format: Google Slides, brochure, PPT presentation, video, skit, poster, podcast, storybook, quiz, blog post, etc.!
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