Earth’s Movement and Seasons

Simple video animation (watch the short video to answer the following Guide Questions):

Guide Questions:

1. At how many degrees is the Earth's axis tilted?

2. What is the effect of the slanting position of the Earth, along with its constant movement around the Sun?

Our home planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only planet known to have life.

Did you know that Earth is not perfectly round?
It is an oblate spheroid. It is constantly spinning like a top around its axis. This spinning is what we call rotation.

Rotation

- the movement of the Earth on its axis over a twenty-four (24) hour period

It rotates eastward.
As viewed from the north pole star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise.
The effect of Earth's rotation is that we have a cycle of daylight and darkness approximately every 24 hours. This is called a day.

While the Earth spins on its axis, it also revolves around the Sun.

It takes 1 year or 365.25 days to complete a full revolution in the counterclockwise direction.