What Causes Day and Night?

Small groups of students explored this question last week. We used our findings from our sun-shadow observations and background knowledge from our research to infer the causes of day and night. Students used globes and flashlights to build models of their ideas. After students developed their inference, they were challenged to find out which direction the earth rotates (east to west or west to east?). Each team of scientists created a video to show their findings. Our class will visit the computer lab this week, and everyone will have a chance to view and comment on each team's video. By seeing other groups explain their findings, I hope all students will gain new perspectives and understandings on this scientific concept. And..it was just fun to watch our kids ham it up in front of our video cameras! Each team's video is posted below - enjoy!