179th Day and Going Strong

On the second to last day of school we used our knowledge of proportions to scale down the 4,500,000,000 km solar system we live in to a model of 20 meters. Using the math to scale it down, we then measured out 20 meters on the playground and measured out the accurate distances from the sun. Having this accurate model (unlike most drawings in books) allowed students to visualize how far spaced the outer planets are compared to the inner planets. It also helped them understand how difficult it is for space travel for humans (even in our own solar system), as we haven't even been able to land humans on Mars, which was within 1 meter of the sun in our model (and only 34 cm away from earth). Trying to get humans to the outer planets or beyond seemed very difficult at this time with our current technology once this model is seen.

Sun Dials

After tracking how each student's shadow changes size over several months this spring, we moved onto looking at the math and science behind how humans have utilized the concept of the sun moving throughout the sky. This week we built sun dials. Students learned how the angle of the gnomon is related to the latitude of where the sun dial will be used. Protractors were used to measure angles between each hour, with the angles decreasing from morning until noon and then increasing until sunset. Although Wednesday was cloudy and postponed our testing of them, today looks more promising.