Mathematics, Science

Earth Science: Sun, Moon, and Earth

3

Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding that the position of the Sun changes during the course of the day.

Students will record the movement of the Sun during the school day by tracing the shadow of a stick on a large piece of construction paper. Students will then demonstrate their understanding by recreating the movement of the Sun across the sky with a flashlight and their shadow drawings.

This will be one of several lessons druing the unit on Sun, Moon, and Earth.
*** I don't know which lesson this will be YET!

During the morning of the school day and up until the Science lesson begins:
1. Students will place their construction paper on the ground outside in a sunny location, where it will remain sunny for the duration of the day.
2. If there is the chance of wind, use weights to weigh down the corners of the paper to avoid it blowing away.
3. A piece of 2 -foot doweling will be placed in the clay and centered on the construction paper.
4. Students should mark exactly where the shadow of the stick is.
5. Using the timer to remind them when an hour has passed, students will trace the length of the shadow each hour, and mark the time next to the shadow.
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During the science lesson in the afternoon, students will follow these procedures:
1. Students will measure how long each shadow is using the meter stick and record the length next to each shadow.
2. Students may take a digital picture of their sundial to illustrate the movement of the shadow and it's corresponding length.
3. Students will enter their data into an Excel spreadsheet.
4. Students will graph their data, using a column graph. Students will notice a pattern. This Excel spreadsheet and graph should be saved as a portfolio example of student learning.
5. Students will notice that the shadows got longer and longer until noon, and then became shorter and shorter.
6. Students will recreate the movement of the Sun across the Earth's sky using their flashlight in a dark room.
7. Students will hypothesize about the movement of the Sun across the Earth's sky.
8. Students will form their conclusions and report their findings to the class in their groups. Groups will write-up their conclusion and save it for the electronic portfolio.
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After recording their conclusions, students will recreate the movement of the sun across the Earth's sky.
* Students will place their construction paper with the doweling and clay in a darkened room.
* Using a flashlight, students will move the beam of light around the doweling and line up the shadow with the marks on the construction paper.
* Students will be able to determine where the sun was when the shadow was in each position.
* Students will notice the relative height of the sun in the sky when each shadow was produced.
* A picture of students recreating the shadow of their sundial may be saved for inclusion in the classroom electronic portfolio.

Students will work collaboratively. Students will work in groups of 2.

2 class periods. 1 Hr per class.

* This lesson will require students to set up their "sundial" first thing in the morning, and record the length of the shadow every hour. The actual science lesson should take place the last hour of the day, so there has been an opportunity to record the shadow for a few/couple hours before noon, and a few/couple of hours after noon. Students will need the last hour to assimilate their data and then demonstrate their understanding of the movement of the Sun across the sky.
* During the progression of this investigation and at it's conclusion, student work will be collected and saved digitally to use in the classroom web site that will be created at the science unit's conclusion.

Students will recreate the movement of the Sun across the Earth's sky using a flashlight.