The Objects in the Sky final test is this Friday, March 13th. Students have in their folders everything that they need to study for this test. Materials they should have are:
A moon cootie catcher
A seasons cootie catcher
A moon phase book
Their orange science book.... they especially need to study the venn diagram on the eclipses.
3 warm up sheets of questions from the last 3 weeks.
Students will need to know the following:
1. How the tilt of the earth affects the number of daylight hours in the northern and southern hemispheres.
2. How the tilt of the earth affects the transition of the seasons..... not the distance of the earth to the sun. (The earth's orbit is an elliptical....but it’s actually physically closer in its orbit to the sun during the winter.... not the summer)
The two MAIN reasons we have seasons is due to the tilt of the earth and the angle of the suns rays shining directly or indirectly on the earth.
3. The gradual decrease in daylight hours is what causes animals to migrate, grow longer fur or change fur/feather color for the upcoming winter....not gradually cooling temperatures. Decreases in daylight hours also triggers the mating season of many species. (for example white tailed deer)
4. Increases in daylight hours cause animals to shed their winter coats and change into their summer coats. Increases in daylight hours also triggers the return migration of our summer birds.
5. June 21st and December 21st are both Solstice dates, signaling the shortest and longest daylight hours for the year when the earth is tilted as far on its axis toward or away from the sun that it’s going to get for the rest of the year.
6. June 21st has the longest daylight hours for the northern hemisphere. The farther north you go, the longer the daylight hours. For example, on June 21st, Fairbanks Alaska experiences 21 hours and 49 minutes of daylight. The sun doesn't set until 11:47 p.m.and rises at 1:58 a.m. And even with the sunset, it doesn't get truly dark during the month of May, June, and July... the sun just briefly hides behind the tallest mountains and night is more like a light dusk or dawn. After June 21st, daylight hours begin to get shorter.
7. December 21st has the shortest daylight hours for the northern hemisphere. The farther north you live, the longer you have darkness as you approach December 21st. Fairbanks has approx 3 hours and 43 minutes of daylight... sunrise is at 11:00 a.m... and sunset is at 2:40 around December 21st.
8. While we are having winter, the southern hemisphere is experiencing summer and vice versa
.
9. Equatorial zones typically have fairly constant temperatures and very few changes in daylight hours as the equator gets the most direct rays of the sun. In other words they don’t experience many seasonal changes.
10. March 21st and September 21st are both Equinox dates. The word "Equinox" means "equal" There is typically the same amount of daylight and darkness on these two days.
11. The two solstice dates are 6 months apart. The two equinox dates are also 6 months apart.
12. Moon cycles. They began these last year in 4th grade. In addition to being able to identify the different phases of the moon they will also learn the difference between a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse and be able to tell how each is also similar.
13. The main source of light and heat in our solar system is our Sun. Our sun is a star but we still call it the sun.
14. The rotation of the earth causes day and night.
15. The Orbit of the earth around the sun takes one year.
16. Students should be able to explain through drawing the moon, earth and sun, when the moon is in its "full " stage, New moon stage, 1st quarter stage, and last quarter stage.
17. The moon cycle takes approximately 28 days. (Some scientists say 27.3... some say 29.5... some say 28.5... we use the 28 as the average of all of these.
18. The apparent motion of the sun across the sky is due to the rotation of the earth on it's axis. The earth turns toward and then away from the sun each day giving the sun the appearance that it is moving across our sky.
19. The rise and fall of ocean tides is caused by the moon's gravitational pull as it orbits the earth. Tides are highest during a New moon due to the combined gravitational pull of the moon and sun.
20. If you have a full moon tonight, it will be 28 days until the next full moon. If you have a 1st quarter moon tonight, it will be 28 days until the next 1st quarter moon. The same is true of all the other phases... whatever phase you see, it will be 28 days until you see that same phase again.
21. The Earth is different from other planets in our solar system in that it is the only planet that has oceans and lakes made up of water (H2O)
22. Students will need to be able to list 2 things that they know about a lunar eclipse, 2 things that they know about a Solar eclipse, and one thing that both eclipses have in common.
