Online+Resources

You can explore these websites beyond the pages given in these links. Most of the websites suggested here can be revisited for information for both of the research tasks of the unit.

 **Interactive Learning**

 1. **Solar System Scope** This exceptional interactive model shows the movement of the planets of the solar system. Explore the movement of the planets from any viewpoint in the solar system. Adjust the settings to change view from being centred around the Sun (heliocentric) to being centred on the Earth (geocentric). Be aware that the scale of the model is not accurate. Click on the navigation bar on the left to find information on the planets.

 2. **Cycles of the Sky: Seasons Interactive** Click on the link to access the interactive learning object. Explore the position of the sun in sky during Earth’s annual orbit. Notice how the position of the sun relates to the angle of sunlight hitting the ground. Use this to compare the tilt of Earth, Venus and Uranus. When you go back to the main page, have a look at the other parts of chapter 1 (accessed from the navigation bar on the left) to find a learning object about the phases of the moon.

 3. **Moon phases** Using this interactive object, you can explore the relationship between the Sun, the Moon and Earth. Use the map, clock and calendar on the left to see the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon from anywhere in the world at any given time. Use this website to help you visualise what is happening and why the moon appears to change shape. Use this excellent online model to help you to organise your ideas for your presentation.

 **Websites**

 4. **Planetary Seasons** NASA is considered by many to be THE authority on knowledge about space. This page introduces the topic of seasons on other planets. Even though the page is written for teachers, as you can see at the top of the page, you should be able to use the detailed information. There are many sections to the NASA website – one particularly useful section is titled ‘**Solar System Exploration**’. It is worthwhile to use the search bar and navigation bar to explore the website further. Keep in mind the purpose of your research as it is easy to get sidetracked with this fascinating site. []

 Interesting activity: The Discovery Channel has adapted the information given in the page from NASA to form captions for a photo gallery of planetary seasons. Notice the slight differences of the information presented for the different audiences.

 5. **The Reasons for Seasons.** This is a website created for a school in the UK that offers information written for primary school students. The page looks at why we have different seasons. Basic information is presented in easy-to-read language. This could be a good starting point to get a basic idea about seasons. Look at the navigation bar on the left for a link to their page on the moon.

 6. **Our Solar System.** KidsAstronomy is written for primary school students and gives basic information about planets in the solar system. Pay attention to the animation of the solar system. You can compare the relative speeds of the orbits of the different planets. Use the navigation bar on the left to access the different planets. Look for the fast facts on the right in order to make a comparison table to organise your information about Earth and another planet.

 7. **Seasons on other planets.** Professor Seligman explains the effect the axial tilt has on seasons of other planets. This text-heavy page is dedicated to looking at how seasons on other planets are compared to the seasons of Earth. Don’t be put off by the format or language in the top half of the page. Scroll down and concentrate on the summary under the diagram. Use your note-taking skills to find the key ideas.

 8. **How Solar Eclipses Work** HowStuffWorks is part of the Discovery Channel network. There are many pages dedicated to solar eclipses and lunar eclipses. Use your skim and scan skills to find relevant information. One growing section of HowStuffWorks is the production of podcasts. Search for the podcast “How the moon works” from ‘Stuff you should know’ to //listen// to an informative conversation about the moon and how it relates to us.

 9. **Space Topics: Compare the Planets** This page from the Planetary Society presents tables that compare facts and figures between Earth and other planets. Use the differences in length of days, annual orbit and average temperature to compare the seasons. This site has a wealth of information on other topics. Pay attention to the links to recent news article found at the bottom of the page. Search the ‘Space Topics’ on the left to find an excellent page on **Solar** and **Lunar eclipses**.

 10. **Search Engine: NSDL** - The National Science Digital Library Breaking news! Google is not the only search engine!! Google is sometimes not the best search engine! Now pick up your jaw from the floor and have a look at NSDL. This is a search engine that is specifically for scientific subjects. Remember to use keywords and Boolean search techniques (Remember how we learnt to use AND, OR, NOT and quotation marks for “exact phrases”) when researching.