Best Science Museum in the World Has Created Free Resources for Teachers

How I Use It

I have gone to the Exploratorium for inspiration for demonstrations to perform in front of students and instructions for how to make them. For example, students are always confused about what we have seasons. They often think that it's because the earth is farther away from the sun during part of the year. This misconception is reinforced by textbooks that illustrate the earth's path around the sun as heavily elliptical. (It is only slightly so). And of course when it's winter in Australia, it's summer in New York, so are we closer or farther. Of course, it has to do with the tilt of the earth's axis of rotation and Exploratorium.edu has a demo and lesson plan for you to use with students to teach the concept. http://www.exploratorium.edu/ancientobs/chaco/HTML/TG-seasons.html This is just one of hundreds of topics covered - all for free.