Sun Tracker

Our Class conducted an awesome experiment with a Sun Tracker.  We created a sun dial to find answers about the Sun, Earth and Shadows.

Here are some of our questions.  Do you know the answers?

1. Does the Sun move?
2. How does the Sun cause shadows on Earth?
3. What is the realtionship between the length and direction of a shadow and the sun? ****
4. How do shadows help us tell what time of day it is? ****
5. Why are there shadows inside a classroom with no windows?
6. What would happen to shadows if the Earth stopped revolving around the Sun (winter versus summer)?****

Here are some pictures of our field experiment.


A student tracing the shadow on their team's sun dial.



A Student ensuring that the sun dial is pointing North.




A student observing a golf tee shadow in the morning



A student tracing the golf tee shadow and marking the time.

Rotation vs Revolution, Shadows, Seasons and The Sun

Want to clarify the difference between rotation & revolution?  Let's get some more information about this.

1. Learn about shadows at Engineering Interact. This will explain more about roation and how the Earth rotates on it's axis causing shadows.
2. Play this BBC BiteSize game on shadows, then "read more" and take the quiz.  How did you do?
3. Go to Brainpop, watch the video and take the quiz.  How did you score?

BrainPOP Jr. Earth BrainPOP Earth BrainPOP Leap Year BrainPOP Galileo Galilei BrainPOP Jr. the Moon BrainPOP Moon GameUp Chronopticon