Life on Earth would not be possible without sunlight. Food products come from animals and flora that all depend on sunlight either for their own food or to grow as plants. Without this regular provision of sunlight, plant-life would eventually die off, starving animals as well as they couldn't find food anymore. An easy lesson parents and teachers can use to show this principle is to have students take a plant and cover it with a box for a few days. When the time period is over, the box should be lifted again. Students can then note the differences in the plant uncovered versus how it was with sunlight before the experiment. Use a control plant nearby and do not cover it, to compare as well.
When sunlight increases the Earth's atmospheric temperature, ice in the polar caps melt. This effect in turn raises water levels in the oceans. To teach this lesson, teachers can take a big tub of water and place a large ice block in the middle. The students can measure the level of the water before the experiment starts. Then, with heat applied to the ice block, the ice melts. When the ice is melted half-way and eventually completely, the students can again measure the tub water level. The concept will then clearly show what happens to the oceans as polar ice melts under the Sun. This experiment can be done outside on a hot and sunny day.
The Sun affects weather by changing the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. In doing so, warm air rises and cold air falls. This causes weather patterns and changes as warm and cold air meet. To explain this lesson a teacher can use the example of a hot air balloon that rises easily in the air. However, to stay up the balloon crew must keep the balloon air heated. When the balloon air cools, the balloon will eventually fall to the ground with gravity.
Those who teach kids in the northern regions can provide lessons on how sunlight and radiation affect the Earth's magnetic zones. As sunlight and waves impact the earth, it causes reactions with electromagnetic barriers around the Earth. This effect can be seen in the night sky as auroras or "northern lights." To visually display the lesson, teachers and parents simply need to take their kids outside and describe what's happening as the auroras occur in the sky.