Teacher's Guide for:

Seasons

Seasons is a surprising film.  This big screen movie offers a wealth of information, yet nowhere in the list of subject material is there a hint of the emotional attachment--the sheer delight--which the viewer is about to experience. 

Seasons evokes in us memories of previous encounters with our world: waving fields of grain, a rainbow, flocks of migrating waterfowl, children playing games in the snow.  Yet this movie adds to our memories, providing a new perspective that will change the way we look at the world. 

Seasons examines the earth as a planet, the sun as a star, and solar activity as the driving force of the earth's weather machine.  The importance of the earth's axial tilt is highlighted with respect to the ever-present climatic challenge, the annual cycle of the seasons. 

Beginning with the dormancy of winter and continuing through the life eruption of spring, the growth and fruiting of summer, and the harvest and celebrations of autumn, the film focuses on the remarkable adaptations of life to the seasons.  From the strategies of winter survival among the animals--thickened fur, burrowing, hibernation, migration--to the seasonal process by which plants germinate, grow, flower, pollinate, fruit, and seed, the film is a celebrative, pleasant, and positive look at the natural world, sprinkled with much humanity and a great deal of beauty. 

Produced by: The Science Museum of Minnesota

Narrated by: William Shatner 

See the "Reasons for the Seasons" Teacher's Guide for activities, discussion topics, and internet resources.