Through this lesson, students will understand the relationship among the Sun, heat energy, evaporation, and condensation.

Students design an experiment to determine how the energy from the sun heats water and land differently.

This handout is to be used with the activity "What a Wacky Winter!" In this activity students design an experiment to determine how the energy from the sun heats water and land differently.

These are the student instructions for the activity "What a Wacky Winter!" In this activity students design an experiment to determine how the energy from the sun heats water and land differently.

This task will extend classroom integrated instruction within a science unit on weather, focusing on the sun's energy. AIG students will use synectics, write an opinion piece and create a collaborative digital product. After whole-class instruction on how the sun's energy heats the air, land and water, AIG students will engage in close reading of nonfiction texts about solar energy. They will then work in collaborative pairs to brainstorm and write similes using synectics to compare solar energy with seemingly unrelated items. The pairs will then create a digital product to publish and illustrate their extended similes. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students learn how energy from the sun serves as a source of heat and light for Earth.

In this lesson, students will take a closer look at the sun and begin to recognize its critical function in heating and warming the air, land, and water that sustain our lives. This will involve drawing their attention to the basics of the heat around them and how the sun is the primary source of that warmth. They will then perform a number of indoor and outdoor activities that support the benchmark, and help to begin their identification of the sun as the natural, universal source of heat in the world.

This interactive water cycle diagram illustrates and describes how water moves through and between locations on Earth.

In this short unit, students observe, discuss, and investigate the concept of weather. First, students participate in a class discussion centered around the question, "It is ___ degrees outside. What should I wear?" Next, students investigate temperature, sunlight, and snow with various experiments. Finally, students compare theri weather with weather in a different location.

This lesson is the eighth lesson in the unit Weather Trackers (http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/unitplan/11468.htm). The activities in this lesson serve as a comprehensive review for the unit on weather. Students review weather concepts through interactive games, role-play and experiments.