Solar Isolation and the "Globe-Kin" Experiment

In our latest preliminary activity experiment, we formed several groups and were tasked with figuring out several factors of the Earth's tilt and how that causes the changing of the seasons.

As we did not have enough globes for everyone involved in the experiment, we were given pumpkins as a substitute for a spherical planet, and we used that with a light-bulb to simulate the changing of the seasons. Using a string to measure the proper distances, we drew on this pumpkin several different lines; one representing the Tropic of Cancer, one representing the Tropic of Capricorn, and one more for the equator line. We used the same method to mark an area where Pennsylvania would technically be on a globe.

Using the tropic of Capricorn, we first started our experiment by collecting the insolation data for an average wintertime on our pumpkin simulation. We accomplished this by recording the temperature using a device left on the pumpkin's surface for 5 minutes, making a new measurement every thirty seconds.
We positioned a bright light-bulb about 20 cm away to apply heat on one side of the pumpkin. Both the pumpkin and a large light were used to to simulate the earth and it's sun, which we used to heat up one side and raise it's overall temperature, therefore cooling the other side. The trick was that the pumpkin's tilt had to match up to it's real-life counterpart. For the first measurement, it had to be during the wintertime, so we matched it up with the place where Earth would be around the winter.

Data Table for Wintertime (Tropic of Capricorn)

Time (Minute:Second)	Temperature (Degrees Celsius)
0:00 (Initial)	21.7
0:30	22.7
1:00	23.6
1:30	24.5
2:00	25.2
2:30	25.7
3:00	26.5
3:30	26.8
4:00	27.0
4:30	27.4
5:00	27.6
5:30	27.7

The second thing we calculated was the average change in temperature during an average summertime. To this, we simply moved our pumpkin to the axis identical to that of the Earth, where it is during the summer.

Data Table for Summertime (Tropic of Cancer)

Time (Minute:Second)	Temperature (Degrees Celsius)
0:00 (Initial)	22.5
0:30	25.4
1:00	28.5
1:30	30.4
2:00	31.9
2:30	33.1
3:00	34.2
3:30	34.9
4:00	35.7
4:30	36.5
5:00	36.5
5:30	37.1

We all know that the Earth revolves around the sun, and so the purpose of this experiment was to learn more about the relationship between insolation (the amount of solar radiation hitting Earth), an angle of insolation (an angle that the rays of the sun hit on Earth), and the temperature changing due to a certain amount of energy absorption from the sun. In this case, the "sun" was a light bulb, a simulation of what it could be, which means that the results are not an entirely accurate demonstration of what could happen in real life. However, they are fairly close to how the real patterns of nature occur, with the change in temperature and the different seasons tied together with the Earth's gravitational tilt and the rays of sunlight hitting the surface.

The summer equinox is on March 21, and the winter equinox is September 22. During this time, the days and nights are the same length, due to the planet being tilted disproportionately to the sun.
The solstices are June 21 and December 21. This is when the sun is at it's highest and lowest points, receptively. 
There were much greater temperatures on the summertime measurement than the wintertime one, and a faster rate of increase as well. This leads us to say that the summer climate is warmer because of the larger amount of insolation allowed on the surface of the planet, with spring and summer acting as the neutral points and the winter having the least insolation out of them all.