Cause and Effect in the NGSS

We did a great activity in my Science Ed. class yesterday. In their Learning Communities (LC) (all my classes have learning communities of 4 or 5 students) the students had to find the causes for several effects related to the Earth. They had to explain the cause of day and night, the four seasons, the different time zones and the differences in temperature and hours of sunlight at different places and times on the Earth's surface.

To do this they had a globe, a balloon, markers, a flashlight and access to the internet. Their goal was to make sure that everyone in their LC had a working  understanding of  all these different phenomena by identifying the cause for each effect.  It was a great experience and gave rise to a lot of discussion, mind changing and a host of aha moments.

At the end of class I gave students a picture of my daughter standing astride the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England. The picture was similar to the one above complete with the all important shadow.  The task for the students was to say which foot was in the eastern hemisphere and which was in the western hemisphere and to say anything else they could about the picture.