Skip to main content

Season/Energy Activity Part II



Using the same concept in the post below the professor had solar powered fans that he purchased from Radio Shack (see second picture packaging). One was taped at the equator and one was taped at the north pole.

He took us outside and covered up the solar panels. He made a big deal of finding the most direct source of light from the sun and tilting the globe so that the equator was getting the most direct light. He released his hands from both locations and the fan at the equator was going full tilt but the one at the pole was going very slow (because it was getting less light).

This was a great demonstration of how certain parts of the earth receive more or less of the suns energy at different times of the year (causing our seasons).
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
I love this idea! I teach alternative energy and this would be a great way to demonstrate solar power. I would also be handy teacher 1st grader about seasons.
I enjoy your blog and was inspired to do science notebooks in my science classrooms. My science team has a blog and would love to get feedback.

http://wiki.ccsd21.org/groups/d21_discoveryscience/blog/

You can also follow us on Twitter (@ScienceTeam21)

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas.
Sandy mills
September 13, 2012 at 9:45 PM
Mary Catherine said…
Is that Dr. Thompson from the University of South Carolina? He was one of my favorite professors! I use a lot of his ideas in my fourth grade classroom. Thank you for sharing this!
September 16, 2012 at 2:01 PM
Eve Heaton said…
Sandy -

Love your blog. I passed on the simple machines scavenger hunt to some of our 6th grade teachers.

Mrs. Whisnant -

Yes, that is Dr. Thompson. I'm really enjoying his class. He has lots of energy and good ideas.

Eve
September 16, 2012 at 2:39 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm looking for the same product online and can't come up with anything. I LOVE this idea and would like to tie it into my seasons lesson in 3rd grade.

Do you mind seeing if there's a place online that sells this product? Or if you could provide some more information the product that would be so helpful. I did go to Radio Shack online but didn't find anything.

Thank you for your help! What a great idea :)

~Mrs. G.
September 22, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Eve Heaton said…
I found the kit on Amazon -http://www.amazon.com/American-Educational-4741-Basic-Solar/dp/B005QDPUMY

It is kind of expensive $23 but you would only need two for the demostration and it could be part of a grant write up.

Eve
September 22, 2012 at 12:23 PM
Eve Heaton said…
Here are some other seller -

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B005QDPUMY/?ie=UTF8&tag=homesolarpowergen-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

I like the the Solar Made quote of $15. The shipping cost is quite high but if you contact the company directly they might wave the shipping cost.

Eve
September 22, 2012 at 12:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Citizen Cards

This project idea came from a monthly challenge put out by Adobe Express. We have the free EDU version deployed in our district and I thought this might be fun to try with a class. I liked that there was a prize element where the students could win a classroom set of hero cards  and it tied in with Digital Citizenship Week (October 17-21).  I teamed up with an elementary technology lab teacher and we decided to try it with one fifth grade class.  We looked over the available templates and decided we liked the layout of the 6-8 template the best (because they had to list advice for staying safe online).  One of the best things about these Adobe monthly challenge templates is that they can be modified. The revised template can then be sent to students via a link or through Google Classroom.  All the templates for this challenge Adobe gives you a sample template with sample wording but we wanted students to come up with their own wording. Neither one of us was ke...
Post a Comment
Read more

Picture of the Day - Activity

I attended a training class and a science coach shared an activity that he does with his students to help them differentiate between observations, inferences, and predictions. He puts a picture on the interactive white board as a warm up (he gets the pictures from a variety of sources but uses National Geographic's Picture of the Day a lot). The picture above is from the National Geographic site. He has the students make five observations. Then he makes the students make five inferences. Finally he has the students make five predictions. He does this every day and it really drives home the difference between those three key inquiry vocabulary terms. I've done this activity with both my sixth and fourth grade science classes and the students really got into it and became proficient at telling me the difference between those terms.
13 comments
Read more

Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Activity

I saw this activity at a science conference years ago and haven't had a chance to use it in a classroom until this week (mainly because I didn't teach weathering, erosion, and deposition). It is a great way to reinforce the definition of the weathering, erosion, and deposition in a highly kinesthetic manner. Basically you break the students up into groups of three. One group is "Weathering" another group is "Erosion" and the third group is "Deposition". Add tape to the back because you are going to stick them to the forehead of the children in each group. The "weathering" students get a sheet of paper that is their "rock" they will be breaking down. At the start of the activity the "weathering" students will start ripping tiny pieces of their "rock" and handing it to the "erosion" students. The "erosion" students will be running their tiny piece of "rock...
5 comments
Read more