Thursday, March 3, 2011

General Science and Physics: The Shadow Knows

This week we observed what happens to outdoor shadows produced by the sun over time. The kids worked in pairs repeatedly tracing each other's shadows, however always from the same starting position. We were all pretty surprised to see that even over a short period of time, in the late afternoon our shadows grew and changed in position.

In physics we took this one step further and used what we learned to make sundials. We built them out of straws mounted on plates. The kids brought them home and set them up in spots that get a lot of sun, so that they will be able to trace the straw's shadow at different times over the course of the day.

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