Dark Side of the Earth - The Mini-Lesson

Who are we without our quirks? My quirks are many. Some I treasure; some I loathe.

But anyway...

I was so taken by the grooviness of the ISS time lapse video (one post down), that I had to turn it into curriculum material somehow. That's a quirk I have. When I see something that strikes me as stunningly groovy, I have to turn it into a lesson of some kind.

So I created a Word document, reprinted the credits listed with the film on Vimeo, then decided on an angle to take.

The video is a visual feast. No narration. No subtitles. No sweeping principles; no factoids. Just imagery. And, of course, all the grooviness.

So my angle was "treasure hunt." Identify the timecode when X appears in the film. When can you see the Moon reflected in the water of the Earth? When is the aurora so strong that red and green bands can be seen? And so on for several scene descriptions.

And I give the answer to the biggest, grooviest puzzler I saw in the video: The illuminated border between India and Pakistan. Thanks to commenter Adrienne at Bad Astronomy for sussing that one out! Watch the video looking for it and see if a "whoa!" doesn't involuntarily slip out of your mouth when it passes underneath.

Word and PDF versions of my question sheet can be found in the folder/link below.

EARTH

I'll give it to my students as an optional assignment over Thanksgiving Break. I'd hate to leave them with nothing to do!