Science 1 - Earth Systems Videos

Duration: 22:57

Synopsis: Though this Bill Nye video may be slightly long for grade one, he does reillustrate many of the key ideas behind understanding the seasons over and over again with different approaches.

Duration: 6:48

Synopsis: While this video certainly presents lots of information on different seasons, one of the great parts of this video is that the narrator poses many questions to the students. This video also takes the idea of "four seasons," and makes it clear that not all parts of the world experience four seasons.

Duration: 6:51

Synopsis: Between the background music and the familiarity for many students with Pete the Cat, this video will be liked by many students. From a scientific standpoint, one of the best parts of this video is that Pete the Cat uses the term "Autumn" over "Fall"; the term "fall" is much more colloquial while the term "autumn" is much more appropriate for a science class. 

Duration: 3:56

Synopsis: This video places an interesting emphasis for the students with placing a focus on the sun. This video looks at the students understanding that seasons are the result of the tilt of the earth, and that this tilt results in differences in the day-length and angle of the sun in the sky.

Duration: 2:59

Synopsis: As you have likely seen on YouTube, there really are about a thousand people who have writen songs about the seasons, and why not? Any person who has lived through many seasons can certainly sing about it. What has this song on here is that it really supports the idea mentioned in a few other places about the importance of students learning both the words autumn and fall (and the preference for the former from a scientific standpoint).

Duration: 8:36

Synopsis: This video feels almost like a children's book that was turned into a video. The narrator spends about two minutes on each season, and with each season, she gives simple sentences about what is happening on earth in each season.

Duration: 2:20

Synopsis: This video certainly focuses on the idea of the four seaons, and introduces students to the idea that seasons are related to the earth's orbit around the sun. Though this video may continue to discuss the idea of four seasons, it also touches on the opposite hemispheres experiencing opposite seasons. 

Duration: 3:03

Synopsis: One of the key pieces of this video that helps with students really understand hibernation is that emphasis is placed on the idea that hibernation is not the same as sleep. It is discussed that if animals do not have enough energy stored, that they can come out of hibernation, eat food, and return to hibernation.

Duration: 4:31

Synopsis: What is great about this video is that while it clearly recorded in the US, it focuses on two species that are great examples of migration in Canada: the caribou and the Arctic tern. Though mention is made of marine migration such as the humpback whale, the focus on this video certainly remains on the caribou and Arctic tern.

Duration: 4:03

Synopsis: Focusing specifically on migratory birds, this video highlights a number of different types of migrations by birds, and is good for going through various types of birds that your students might be familiar with (eg. doves and pigeons).

Duration: 7:03

Synopsis: What is really great in the video is that there is a focus on the contrast between animals that do hibernate and those that don't. The video has a point at which the students are prompted to hypothesize why there are some animals that hibernate while others don't. This is a great prompt for your class to really begin to practise the idea of hypothesizing.