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Focus Question:
- What is the effect of latitude on the Sun's angle of elevation?
To answer this question students around the world will be participating in the following experiment. (Note: There are additional suggested activities where time or interest permits.)Some other ideas suggested by teachers during and after the first Sun-Earth event.
Caution!
- Students are reminded never to look directly at the Sun.
Procedure - (Student Lab Sheet)
- Pick a day during March 18-22 when the sun is not obscured at noon. (If Daylight Saving Time is in effect you should instead do this activity at 13:00 (1 pm). See note about "noon".)
- Find a ruler or other straight object whose length you can measure.
- Place ruler perpendicular to ground in a sunny area. To make sure it is vertical you can use a plumb bob constructed with a string and a weight.
- Measure and record the length of the shadow. (We suggest that students record their findings in centimeters.)
- Create a graph with the y-axis (vertical) being the length of the ruler used, and the x-axis (horizontal) being the length of its shadow.
- Sun Angle Worksheet - (This is a PDF file. Use Acrobat Reader to view)
- Connect the 2 points with a line (
) and measure the angle
using a protractor (or calculate using trigonometry) to the nearest degree.
- Record the calculated angle
- S'COOL or SOLAR participants should make an observation at this time.
Outcome:
Follow-up Activities:
- Your measurement appears on a data table along with those from other schools around the world.
The number of observations in our database will grow throughout the week, so please feel free to check back to our site at the end of the week to retrieve all observations made during this Sun-Earth Day Activity.
