Day and Night
created by: Betty Wescott
What Causes Day and Night?
What is a day? How do you define it? Most, might define a day as 24 hours, but why?
We experience daylight/daytime and darkness/nighttime, each and every day. Through our observations, we know that in a day in Michigan, we experience light during the day, and darkness at night, but what causes these changes? Do all places on Earth have the same amount of daytime and nighttime? This is what you/we must discover!
Before you explore the links below, please think about and/or discuss the following questions:
Useful Links to Explore...
*Reminder: Be sure to think about the perspective from which you are viewing from. Are you viewing from space? From a top view? Side view? From Earth? Be sure to think about this as you view each simulation.
Day and Night:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/dayandnight/
Observing Shadows:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/shadows/
Observing Sunrise and Sunset:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/sunrisesunset/
Sun-Earth Day 2005- Ancient Observatories: A Webpage by NASA, showing a timeline of how people throughout history observed the Sun: http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2005/multimedia/timeline.htm
We experience daylight/daytime and darkness/nighttime, each and every day. Through our observations, we know that in a day in Michigan, we experience light during the day, and darkness at night, but what causes these changes? Do all places on Earth have the same amount of daytime and nighttime? This is what you/we must discover!
Before you explore the links below, please think about and/or discuss the following questions:
- What is a day? What is night?
- How long do we have daylight and night, each day?
- Do the hours of daylight each day change throughout the year? If so, why?
- Where does the Sun go when we cannot see it?
- What causes the Sun to disappear?
- Does it disappear or is it still there?
- Why can we not see the Sun for a whole day?
Useful Links to Explore...
*Reminder: Be sure to think about the perspective from which you are viewing from. Are you viewing from space? From a top view? Side view? From Earth? Be sure to think about this as you view each simulation.
Day and Night:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/dayandnight/
Observing Shadows:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/shadows/
Observing Sunrise and Sunset:
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/sunrisesunset/
Sun-Earth Day 2005- Ancient Observatories: A Webpage by NASA, showing a timeline of how people throughout history observed the Sun: http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2005/multimedia/timeline.htm