I’d have to say, I’ve been quite pleased with how well some of the projects we’re doing in science are turning out! The newest one was something I came up with this year because of a certain item we were struggling with. Most of the students could tell you why we have seasons, how it involves the tilt of the Earth, and the amount of sunlight we receive, but for some reason that idea could not translate into labeling a diagram like the one below.
The only thing I can think is that they are having troubles connecting the fact that this two dimensional diagram actually represents three dimensional space. The Northern axis is pointed toward and away from the sun on the left and the right. Toward is summer, away is winter. The Earths on the top and bottom, are not actually above and below the sun, but rather in front and behind, so their axis is not actually pointed toward or away, but more parallel with the sun. Even though we had tested and were “done” with the unit, I went back, and we created a picture. Using the ideas we have learned about perspective: things lower on the paper, are larger and closer, we drew the picture below. It was drawn from a fresh piece of paper, with step by step instructions on where to put the center of the circles and how large to make each circle. Once it was drawn, they were suppose to color it however they wanted. I am really quite pleased with the results of the pictures! Hopefully, it also helped cement it a little better for them.
We retook the questions that were missed on the test, and most students got them correct. This is posted as the Seasons Retake under the Tests section of science. I counted it as extra credit, so those who didn’t do better, it didn’t adversely affect their grade, but it will help those who did well on it.