The Real Reasons for Seasons: Sun-Earth Connections starts out with a game in Activity One: "Name the Season." This is a science/writing activity in which students write paragraphs depicting scenes or events that have recognizable season-related elements, but do not mention an actual season name. Students read each other’s paragraphs and try to identify the season the author is describing.

Seasons and seasonal weather patterns have had a major impact on the development of civilizations. One example of this is the monsoons that affect southern Asia. An article on this appears below. Just as seasons cause significant changes in the weather, longer-term climatic fluctuations such as El Niño have also affected civilizations.   Read about how El Niño may have affected a sixth century civilization in Peru.	The color of the ocean as observed from space can be used to understand El Niño and variations in climate. NASA has an instrument in orbit called the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor. (Web link requires an Internet connection)     An excerpt from the book Floods, Famines, and Emperors by Brian Fagan.

Seasons around the world have inspired great literature and art. Some of the greatest exploration adventures have been to areas of the world with extremes of seasons, such as the desert and the Arctic and Antarctic. Seasons can bring great joy or misery, much needed rainfall or life-threatening floods.   Icebound and Crushed is an excerpt from a story about the Shackleton expedition to the Antarctic. The seasons had a tremendous impact on the expedition.

Listen to a radio documentary that was made by Minnesota Public Radio about the Shackleton expedition. (Web link requires an Internet connection)     Connect with classrooms around the United States and the World. Share weather information with other schools. (Web link requires an Internet connection)

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