Thursday, March 18, 2010

Thursday with Sundial Instructions

We had an interesting class today learning about satellites. We are showing images from weather satellites and agriculture satellites that show moisture in soil and how well crops are growing. We discussed why we have time zones and watched on-line a current satellite map that shows where it is night time and where it is daylight. We also discussed the differences we learned from yesterday's experiments.

Here is a site that shows some of the images sent back from the Hubble telescope http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/ero/index.html

Students were give a handout for making their sun-dial. I am also including the instructions here:
Sundial Instructions - Due Date April 8th:
Supplies:
1. Large piece of paper, cardboard, paper plate or other flat object that can be drawn on
2. A stick, pencil or other straight tall object to use to mark the time
3. Something like clay to anchor the straight stick
4. A marker or pencil

Instructions:
1. Find a good place where the sun will shine for at least five hours
2. Place your flat paper or other object in the sun, anchor it to the ground
3. Determine the directions, North, South, East, West
4. Put the stick or pencil in the bottom center of the paper
5. On the next hour, mark the shadow of the straight object – make sure you draw to the end of the shadow
6. Set a timer and then mark the shadow every hour – draw the new line including width and full length
7. Five hour markings are required

Cautions:
1. Put the paper in a place that will not be bothered by animals or wind and anchor it down
2. If you are forced to move the paper, use a compass or marker so you can reset it exactly
3. Set a timer – you think you will remember but it is really frustrating when you miss it by a few minutes

No comments: