The Reasons for the Seasons:
How the Earth and Sun interact to Create Seasons

Earth's Axis

The activity below allows you to explore how Earth orbits our Sun. You can get the instructions below, or watch the short video by following the link to the left. Use this activity to help you answer the following questions. In the first question, you might want to use the triangle to move the planet around the sun.

Instructions can be found at the bottom of the page. Or you can watch this short mp4 explanation.

To answer this second question, again you will want to move the Earth by moving the triangle to a particular time of the year. You might also want to unclick the Orbit, Faster orbit and Solar Insolation graph. The blue line on the right will help you answer the question.

You might want to switch back and forth betwee the top view and oblique view to answer the following question.

Continue

Instructions

• Show View button - to select sideways or top view
• Labels - toggle the labels of seasons on/off
• Rotation - toggle the Earth's rotation on/off
• Orbit - check to have rotation and orbit synchronized
• Faster Orbit - check to make the orbit faster
• Solar Insolation Graph - toggle the graph of the Average Daily Solar Insolation on/off
• Month slider - as the Earth orbits the Sun, this shows the month during the year; you may also grab the slider thumb to move as desired.