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| How long is the shadow? |
This week we formed a hypothesis about the sun’s movement across the sky. Then we went outside to test our hypothesis.
We used sticks to mark our shadow. We measured our shadows in centimeters at around 11:30 A.M. We recorded our observations in our science notebook.
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| 4D scientists keep accurate records in their Science Notebooks! |
Then we remeasured our shadows 45 minutes later (with sticks to mark our shadows once again). We noticed that the measurement at 11:30 cast a longer shadow. This was because the sun was directly overhead when we had measured our shadows at about 12:15. So we had cast a longer shadow at 11:30 a.m. When the sun is high, shadows are shorter. When the sun is low, shadows are longer. The sun looks low or high depending on the earth's rotation. The sun's position in the sky changes as the earth rotates on its axis.
It may seem that the sun is moving, but really the earth is spinning and one side turns away from the sun while the other side faces it.
Have you ever wondered about this?
Would the results be the same if we conducted the investigation at a different time of day?
I am very happy seeing this class for doing many marvelous activities. I truly believe those excellent learning experiences would benefit for our kids for their rest of life. Thank you, Mrs. Alaniz!
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great way to see if the sun moves across the sky each day!
ReplyDeleteBut it was windy so some of our papers flew away!
I wonder why you can't feel he earth move?
This was fun to do for science. This will be a great way of teaching other ones about the sun and earth.
ReplyDeleteThat was really cool, would it work with a full moon? (Does the moon move across the sky each NIGHT?)
ReplyDelete