Total Duration: |
Greater than 120 Minutes |
Materials and Resources: |
Paper Chalk Pencils Pens Handout 1 Access to a Sunny Sidewalk Chart Paper (to use for graphing sunset and sunrise time) Crayons Whiteboard |
Technology Resources Needed: |
Computer Document Camera Internet Access Projector |
Background/Preparation: |
-Knowledge of the patterns of the sun -Basic computer skills (including but not limited to knowledge of a processing software, presentation manufacturing software, etc., working knowledge of how to search using the internet). -Pre-made chart of sunset and sunrise times of two different days of the year in two different seasons. Teacher may include a picture of the season of each of the days that are charted. An example has been included as "Teacher Chart Example". |
Day 1: Pairs of students will go outside to a sunny area. Partner 1 will stand on sidewalk while partner 2 traces his or her shadow. Then they will switch and repeat the steps. Students will be given handout 1. They will go back outside in 4 hours and record how their shadow has moved by coloring in how far their shadow is over their shape, and the time that they recorded it. The teacher may guide this and tell the students what time they should put next to their shadow. The teacher will discuss sunrise and sunset with the whole group. During the discussion, the teacher will highlight the differences in time during the seasons using their remade chart. The teacher will create a graph and record the time of sunrise that day. Days 2-8 The class will repeat the previous steps once a week every two weeks for the next month. Make sure to do it at the same two times during the day. Be sure to have students make a new chart of their own shadow changes using "Handout 1". Help students keep these in a folder for comparison at a later date. The teacher will continue to document the time of sunrise each day. Each time they will discuss how the time of sunrise effects the movement of their shadow. Last Day: Students will view the completed chart that the teacher has created and compare it to their completed handouts from the previous activities that have already been completed. The teacher should be sure to point out the relationship between their changing shadows (housed in their folders) and the sunrise times. |
Assessment Strategies |
Informal Assessments (teacher observation, in class questioning such as "What happened to the shadow?" or "What direction is the sun moving?") After the progression has become evident to students (i.e. the students are able to identify that the sun is moving and what direction it is moving in), use the file loaded as "Assessment 1". Directions and an answer key are included in the assessment file. NOTE: A good time for the final assessment is after students have completed many different recordings of "Handout 1" and placed them in their own individual folders. |
Acceleration: |
Students may use online weather websites such as www.weather.com to look up the sunrise and sunset times for the days and create their own chart similar to that of the teachers. Additionally, you can demonstrate how the length of shadows changes using this site: http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond/shadows/ |
Intervention: |
These students may go out every two hours throughout day 1 to see a more immediate change in their shadow instead of a gradual change. The teacher can extend the activity over a longer period of time.
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View the Special Education resources for
instructional guidance in providing modifications and adaptations
for students with significant cognitive disabilities who qualify for the Alabama Alternate Assessment.
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