Mississippi Science E.5.8B.3

Science5th GradeEarth and Space Science

The Standard

E.5.8B: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the principles that govern moon phases, day and night, appearance of objects in the sky, and seasonal changes.

Develop and use models to explain the factors (e.g., tilt, revolution, and angle of sunlight) that result in Earth’s seasonal changes.

2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Earth and the Universe

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students show how Earth moves around the Sun while its tilted axis keeps pointing in the same direction. They use the model to explain why each hemisphere gets different amounts of daylight and more or less direct sunlight during the year.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can move a tilted globe around a lamp without changing the direction its axis points. They can identify which hemisphere has summer at two opposite positions and explain why using daylight hours and sunlight angle.
Common Misconceptions: Students often say summer happens because Earth is closer to the Sun. Some turn Earth's axis toward the lamp at every position, which hides the reason seasons change.
How to Assess It: On an exit ticket, draw a lamp and two globes on opposite sides of it. Ask students to add the tilted axes, label Northern Hemisphere summer and winter, and explain one label using sunlight angle.

Lesson moves

Place a sticker on the Northern Hemisphere of a tilted globe; move it around a lamp without changing the direction its axis points.
Ask students to write: 'Earth is closest to the Sun in January, so why is it winter north of the equator?'
Give pairs four orbit diagrams; they race to circle models with a consistently tilted axis and label which hemisphere gets more direct light.
Look up local sunrise and sunset times for June 21 and December 21; calculate daylight hours and connect the difference to Earth's tilt.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to E.5.8B.3, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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