Tis the Season to be Chilly

Agenda
Do Now - 5 minutes

Make the Sun Shine! - 53 minutes

- Paper test - 6 minutes

- Make your model - 7 minutes
- Run some tests! - 23 minutes
- Chill out! - 7 minutes
- Debrief - 10 minutes

Exit Ticket - 7 minutes

 Do Now
Why do you think that when it’s summer in Brattleboro it’s winter in Australia?

Which of these three explanations best describe why we have seasons?

1. When Earth is closer to the sun, it’s warmer. When Earth is further
away from the sun, it’s colder.
2. Earth makes its own orbital path that changes every couple of years.
3. The Earth is tilted relative to the Sun.

Which of these three explanations best describes what Earth’s climate

conditions have been like over the past 1 million years?
1. The Earth has (overall) been warming for the past million years
2. Earth has undergone cooler and warmer periods over the past million
years, and has experienced recent warming.
3. The Earth has been slowly cooling, and has recently undergone
drastic warming.
Challenge: Prove that the amount of direct sunlight that
reaches Brattleboro, Vermont changes throughout the
year, and how this is possible.
Find a partner and gather materials you will need!
● 2 sheets of white construction paper
● 1 marker
● 1 flashlight
● 1 mini foam ball

*If you complete your worksheet, please help out another group and compare what you did.*
 Essence: Milankovitch cycles have had a direct impact on global climates
throughout geologic time, from affecting the seasons to influencing the many
recent periods of glaciation and melting. As our climate continues to warm from
human influences, it is important to look back at historical causes of change to see
how they may factor play into modern changes.

Materials (per pair): Hints:

● 1 flashlight 1) How can you get light to hit the northern

● 1 foam ball hemisphere more directly than the southern
● 1 marker hemisphere (and vice versa)?
● 2 sheets of construction paper
2) If these two factors influence climate in a
Materials (per class): regular way over short time scales (i.e. tilt
causing seasons in your lifetimes), then
● 11 flashlights what could account for these climate
● 11 foam balls changes over longer periods of time?
● 11 markers
● 22 sheets of construction paper
Challenge Board
Create a working model of the Earth Prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
and the Sun that accounts for both distance from the Sun does not cause
light-changing factors. the seasons.

Prove that the directness of sunlight Prove these two factors are responsible
changes when you change an for ice ages
aspect of each factor.
Let’s talk about it….
Exit Ticket:

Given what you have just learned,

explain why the Earth has
seasons in a few sentences.

Based on this graph showing

periods of glaciation, what have
Earth’s climate conditions been
like over the past 1 million years
(1000ky)?