Worksheet

Behind the Forecast App: Sun Angle, Seasons and the Moon

Grade 8 Earth-Sun-Moon practice: analyze a school weather station's sun and distance data, and use lamp models to explain moon phases and eclipses.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS1-1

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Single worksheet
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1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use sun angle, day length and distance data to explain what causes seasons.
Students use a lamp-and-ball model to explain moon phases and when eclipses can happen.

How to use

If you can, act out the lamp-and-ball model in a darkened room before students answer Part 2; Part 1 works well as partner data analysis.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS1-1

Model the Earth-Sun-Moon system to explain moon phases, eclipses and seasons.

Preview

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Name Date

Behind the Forecast App: Sun Angle, Seasons and the Moon

Use weather station data and two classroom models to explain seasons, moon phases and eclipses.

Part 1: The Sun data

Read the passage and the table, then answer the questions.

What the App Knows

1The weather club at Lakeview Middle School keeps a small weather station on the school roof. Its sensors send temperature, wind and sunlight readings to a forecast app the club built with their teacher, Ms. Farah Lindqvist. Lakeview is at 40° north latitude. Besides the forecast, the app shows how high the Sun climbs at noon, the length of the day, Earth's distance from the Sun and the phase of the Moon. Each Friday the club checks the app's forecasts against the station's real readings and posts how often they were right.

2Eighth grader Anouk Brandt pulled four dates from a full year of station data. The table shows them. The station's sunlight sensor also measures how much solar energy reaches each square meter of the flat roof. On a clear day at noon, it reads about twice as much in June as in December. Earth's axis is tilted about 23.5°, and all year the axis points toward the same place in space, close to the North Star.

3To test why the angle of sunlight might matter, the club shined the same flashlight at a sheet of graph paper from the same distance. With the beam pointing straight down, the bright spot covered 20 squares. With the beam tipped low, like a winter Sun, the bright spot covered 40 squares and looked dimmer.

4For the moon phase feature, the club built a model in a dark classroom. A bare lamp stood for the Sun. A student's head stood for Earth, and a foam ball on a stick, held at arm's length, stood for the Moon. The student turned slowly in a circle and watched how much of the ball's lit side faced her. The Moon's path around Earth is tilted about 5° compared with Earth's path around the Sun, so the club sometimes held the ball a little above or below the lamp's height. Over one month, the app showed the dates in the second table. The club also added eclipse dates from a public space agency calendar, and they noticed that only a few full moons each year had a lunar eclipse listed.

Lakeview Station Data (40° N)
Date	Noon Sun height	Day length	Average high	Earth–Sun distance
March 20	50°	12.1 h	10 °C	149 million km
June 21	73°	15.0 h	29 °C	152 million km
September 22	50°	12.1 h	24 °C	150 million km
December 21	27°	9.3 h	4 °C	147 million km

Use the table.

How many degrees higher is the noon Sun on June 21 than on December 21? °

Use the table.

How many fewer hours of daylight does Lakeview get on December 21 than on June 21? h

A classmate says winter happens because Earth is farther from the Sun. What do the table's data show?

A. Earth is nearest the Sun in December, so distance does not explain winter.
B. Earth's distance from the Sun stays the same all year, so it is not a cause.
C. Earth is closest to the Sun in June, which is why June is warmest here.
D. Earth is farthest from the Sun in December, which supports the idea.

Use the flashlight test in paragraph 3.

The low beam spread the same light over how many times as many squares as the straight-down beam? times

Which explanation of Lakeview's warm June days best fits the table and the flashlight test?

A. Earth's axis flips direction in June, so the north half moves closer to the Sun.
B. The north half of Earth tilts toward the Sun, so sunlight is more direct and days are longer.
C. The Sun gives off more energy in June, so its light covers more squares on the ground.
D. Low-angle sunlight in June is spread over a larger area, so it heats the ground more.

Part 2: The Moon model

Use paragraph 4 and the moon table.

Moon Phases in the App (October)
Date	Phase	Part of Moon lit
October 2	New moon	0%
October 9	First quarter	50%
October 17	Full moon	100%
October 24	Third quarter	50%

Match each position of the foam ball in the model to what the student sees.

Ball between the student's head and the lamp
Ball a quarter turn away from the lamp
Ball on the far side of the head from the lamp, a little above the head's shadow
Ball on the far side of the head from the lamp, inside the head's shadow

A. Lunar eclipse
B. Full moon
C. New moon
D. Half of the ball looks lit

What does the model show about why the Moon has phases?

A. Earth's shadow covers a different part of the Moon each night.
B. Clouds in space block part of the Moon on different days of the month.
C. The Moon makes less of its own light as it moves away from Earth.
D. We see different amounts of the Moon's sunlit half as it orbits Earth.

Use the moon table. On about what date will the app show the next new moon?

A. October 31
B. November 9
C. October 27
D. November 16

The app lists a lunar eclipse in October. On which date in the moon table could it happen?

A. October 2
B. October 24
C. October 17
D. October 9

10.

There is a full moon about every 29.5 days, but most full moons are not lunar eclipses. Which explanation fits the model?

A. The Sun is too far from Earth during most months to make a shadow.
B. The Moon moves too fast at full moon for Earth's shadow to reach it.
C. Earth's shadow points toward the Sun, away from the Moon, during most months.
D. The Moon's tilted path usually takes it a little above or below Earth's shadow.

11.

Anouk wants the app to explain why Lakeview is cold in December. Write a claim about the cause of Lakeview's seasons. Use at least two numbers from the station table and the flashlight test as evidence, and explain your reasoning.