Churchill Science

By popular request…

In this game, you get to be the Sun. You can “fire” small, medium, or large solar winds at the Earth and watch as the Earth’s magnetic field produces an aurora in response. Then click “Evaluate” to find out what your solar winds did to the Earth.

The above videos show how the Earth’s magnetic field protects it from the Sun’s energy.

Here’s what it looks like when solar wind hits the Earth’s magnetic field. It causes the Northern and Southern Lights (Auroras).

Just the animation:

This first video is called Origins of the Moon. Don’t worry about the big words and the advanced math – this is just showing the same idea as the video from the Museum of Natural History. When Earth was first born, it had no Moon. Then, another planet too close by hit the Earth. The Moon was formed from that explosion. There was nothing living on Earth at the time. We’ve also talked a lot in class about how this could not happen again today because there are no planets that come very close to us.

Why does the Moon look like it changes? This shows some nice footage of the Earth, Moon and Sun together. It makes it easy to see how the Sun’s light makes one side of the Moon look bright. But, sometimes the bright side is facing away from us or only facing towards us a little bit. So, the Moon sometimes looks dark or has a crescent shape.

Click here to play the Earth, Sun, Moon game!

Click on the picture to play the Lunar Cycle Challenge!

The Moon looks different each night because the Earth and Moon are always moving around the Sun. This game will help you to learn about how the Moon’s shape changes every day. What patterns do you notice?

From the Museum of Natural History

Click here to explore the relationships between the Earth, Sun and Moon.

Questions:
-What is missing from this picture?
-What are the circles around the Sun and the Earth?
-Why does the Sun get to be in the middle?
-What do you think would happen if we took the Earth out?

Click the picture to play this game!

Things to notice as you play:
-What happens when you go to big places, such as the Sun or Jupiter?
-What happens when you go to small places, like the Moon or Mercury?
-Why is the target floating on some of the planets and on the Sun?

Challenge: Find MORE THAN ONE WAY to hit the target!

Life on the International Space Station

Water in zero gravity – forms a sphere!

Fun on the space station!

Coming soon – zero gravity airplane flight!

The Moon is much smaller than the Earth. Therefore, it pulls less. Watch some footage from the moon landings to see for yourself!

Astronauts on the moon – notice how they get around. Are they walking normally? How much is the Moon’s gravity pulling them?

Dropping a feather and hammer on the moon – This experiment should look familiar. We did something like this in class together. The difference is – no air on the moon, so the feather won’t float. Also notice how much time it takes for both objects to hit the ground.

Throwing a hammer on the moon – Notice how high the hammer goes, and how long it takes for it to come down. What would that look like on Earth?

The ocean ecosystem is different from the others we’re studying. For one thing, it doesn’t make as much sense to talk about “seasons”. It’s better to look at how deep the water is. This game shows you the different layers of the ocean and lets you explore a special place on the ocean floor: