Teaching ScienceIdeas and help for trainee Science teachers

Jaw dropping time-lapse footage from the International Space Station

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Had a request in Mondays session for the link to the Earth from Space at Night image. So here it is.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081005.html

(click to make bigger)

Also see : http://geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.shtml

And here’s London from Space:

More night shots of London can be seen here:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/london_from_above_at_night.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/more_of_london_from_above_at_n.html

Another one of your questions was about Day, Night and Seasons. I’ll try and link to some good animations and guides about this that are already on the web.

The Earth is always lit from one side by the Sun. The side that is in shadow is in Nighttime, the side that is lit by the Sun is in Daytime. If you follow one spot on the Earth such as London, as the Earth spins it will eventually move from night into day and then later back into night time again. From where we are standing it looks like it is the Sun that’s moving instead.

You can see what the view from space above London is like right now with this viewer.

You can see what’s happening on this animation

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/dayandnight.asp

To add to the confusion: The Earth is slightly tilted on its axis. This means at some times of the year, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted slightly towards the Sun (Summer) and at other times of the year it is tilted away from the Sun (Winter). At the Spring and Autumn Equinox the two hemispheres are neither tilted away or towards the sun.

There are some more diagrams on this page which illustrate this.

Here’s a nice animation of the Earth going around the Sun, showing the effect of the tilt on the seasons.

http://mesoscale.agron.iastate.edu/agron206/animations/01_EarthSun.html

The tilt also affects the length of a day on Earth. You can explore that with this animation

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/sunrisesunset.asp

In the winter the Sun rises later and sets earlier. We have short days and long nights. In the Summer the sun rises earlier and sets later, we have long days and shorter nights. At the Spring and Autumn equinox the length of day and night is equal (equi = equal nox=night)

More Info

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/earth/solsticescience.shtml

http://www.boutichesaid.cv.dz/Earth/EarthLight/EarthLight.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasons

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/seasons.html

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/revision_bites/earth_sun_moon.shtml

Microsoft have finally released the public beta of their World Wide Telescope project, and I just had to write about it. It’s a must for anyone who has to teach about space, or just anyone interested in astronomy.

Basically, its Microsoft’s version of Google Earth/ Google Sky and if you’ve used the Google version in the past then you’ll pick this up very easily.

The software provides a virtual planetarium and lets you study the night sky with great detail. Some of the images are astounding. You can also switch the view to study planets and moons such as Jupiter and Io.

When looking at the stars, right clicking will bring up a star identifier which tells you the name of the star (if known) and some information about it. You can even link direct to the relevant wikipedia page.

Maybe a quick activity would be to search for their star sign (I looked up Aries) and find the names of the stars in the constellation. Maybe even find out how far away they are from Earth.

You can also point the camera downwards and study the Earth instead just like Google Earth, although not in as high resolution. A nice feature is the Earth at Night view which shows just where all the populated areas are. Interesting to use for Geography perhaps?

This is highly recommended and would be an excellent piece of software for anyone who has to teach about the Earth and space. Download it from here.