Connection to the National Standards
Modeling the Sun
K-4- Develop an understanding of objects in the sky
Develop an understanding of changes in Earth and sky
Develop an understanding of the position and motion of objects.

Grades 5-8 Develop an understanding of Earth in the solar system
Develop an understanding of the transfer of energy.
Connection to the National Mathematics Standards
Grades K through 4
Use models, known facts, properties, and relationships to explain their thinking
Use mathematics in other curriculum areas
Explore estimation strategies
Construct number meaning through real-world experiences and the use of
physical materials
Develop spatial sense
Make and use estimates of measuring.

Grades 5 through 8
Understand and apply reasoning processes, with special attention to spatial
reasoning and reasoning with proportions and graphs
Understand and apply ratios, proportions, and percents in a wide variety
of situations
Represent numerical relationships in one and two-dimensional graphs
Use computation, estimation, and proportions to solve problems
Systematically collect, organize, and describe data
Visualize and represent geometric figures with special attention to
developing spatial sense.

Differential Rotation of the Sun
National Science Education Content Standard A, B, D, E, H:

Develop abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Develop an understanding of motions and forces
Develop an understanding of origin and evolution of the Earth system
Develop understanding about science and technology
Develop understanding of science as a human endeavor and historical perspectives
Benchmarks for Science Literacy:
Telescopes collect information from across the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves, space probes send back data from the remote parts of the solar system and that increasingly sophisticated technology is used to learn about the universe.
National Mathematics Standards:
Estimate, make and use measurements to describe and compare phenomena; select appropriate units and tools to measure to
the degree of accuracy required in a particular situation; develop formulas
and procedures for determining measures to solve problems.
Coronal Mass Ejection Velocity with NIH Image Measuring the Motion of a CME Using NIH Image (Grades 9-12)

National Mathematics Standards
Understands and applies basic and advanced properties of the concept of measurement
Has a basic understanding of the concept of velocity and how it is measured
Has a basic understanding of the concept of acceleration and how it is
measured
Determines precision and accuracy of measurements
Understands that scale drawings can help one measure distances and angles
that are inconvenient to measure directly.

National Science Education Standards, Science and Technology
Understands the nature of scientific knowledge
Knows that science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from their bodies of knowledge through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism, as scientists strive for certainty of their explanations
Knows that scientific explanations must meet certain criteria; they must be
consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature; and they must include a logical structure, rules of evidence, openness to criticism, reporting methods and procedures, and a commitment to making knowledge public
Knows that because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available; in areas where data, information, or understanding is incomplete, it is normal for scientific ideas to be incomplete,but this is also where the opportunity for making advances may be greatest.

Understands the nature of scientific inquiry
Designs and conducts scientific investigations by identifying and clarifying the question method, controls and variables; organizing and
displaying data; revising methods and explanations; presenting the results; and receiving critical response from others.



Convection Cells (Grades 9-12)
Connection to National Science Education Standards
Understand energy types, sources, and conversions, and their relationship to
heat and temperature
Know that energy tends to move spontaneously from hotter to cooler
objects by conduction, convection, or radiation; similarly, any ordered state
tends to spontaneously become less ordered over time.

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The Sun is a ball of hot gases. By weight, it is 70 percent hydrogen; 28 percent helium; 1.5 percent carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen; and 0.5 percent other elements. The Sun's temperature is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface and 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the center. The average distance from Earth to the sun is 93,000,000 miles. Light travels in 8 1/2 minutes from the sun to Earth. The diameter of the sun is 870,000 mile: 109 times larger than Earth's. Its volume is big enough to hold over 1 million Earths.

The Sun gives us heat, light, food, and the air that we breathe. It powers the atmosphere to give us the wind and rain. Even the coal and oil that generate electricity for light and power come from plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago and depended on the Sun for life. The sun heats the land, oceans, and air. It evaporates water from lakes and oceans. When the water vapor cools, it drops as rain or snow, giving us the moisture we need for drinking water, and for plants and animals to grow. Green plants use the sun's rays to turn carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates. At the same time, the plants release oxygen that we use to breathe. The production of carbohydrates by green plants is called photosynthesis. The carbohydrates that plants form are used by them to grow, and we, in turn, use plants for our nourishment. Without the Sun, Earth would be a dark, cold, and dead place.