Sun Shadows Project

This educational project has been developed in the context of the following Italian and Belgian educational programs:

• Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide - SPES Summer Polar School for Science Teachers (http://www.mna.it/spes/)
• International Polar Foundation - PolarQuest (http://www.educapoles.org)

Both of these programs have a science teacher working at an Antarctic scientific research station during the austral summer 2011/12.

The two “Antarctic teachers” will make simple astronomical measurements of the height of the Sun at noon at locations in Antarctica at the Princess Elisabeth and Mario Zucchelli Stations. They may also take measurements at other locations during their travels. Also, teachers, students and scientists will be encouraged to make measurements at other locations around the world.

These data will be published in real time and will be used by participating schools to make simple lectures and activities on the movements of the Earth, on the apparent motion of the Sun in the sky, radiance, seasons, other astronomical-climatic aspects and goniometry. Data collection starts on 16 ^th January 2012 and ends on 30^th March 2012. The Data-collection period could be extended over that day

Participation in the project is free and open to all.

This activity could easily be done by students aged between around 10 to 18 years.

The minimum activities required by participating schools are the following:

1. Measure the length of the shadow of a one-meter-long stick exactly at noon local solar time (ie. when the sun is at its highest) following the instructions below. This should be done at least once a week, during the Antarctic summer season or a period covering the change of the seasons in lower latitudes.
2. Submit the data.
3. Undertake educational activities with the class aimed at the interpretation of the data in order to highlight the relationship between the latitude of a geographical point, the day of the year and the height of the Sun at noon (culmination).

Useful resources

• Short video clip made by an Italian school in 2007 in the context of the educational activities of the project ANDRILL-progettosmilla.it (www.progettosmilla.it). In the second half students (from minute 5:00) explain step by step how they manage to define the latitude of a place using data on the length of the sun shadow taken by the teacher at McMurdo Station, Antarctica http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbhJ4l5rvSw

• Short video clip on the purpose of the project and how performing the experiment made by Koen Meirlaen in the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station

  (http://www.educapoles.org/nl/multimedia/video_detail/sun_shadows_project_instructiefilmpje/)

• Worksheets for the preparation of the experiment in ENG, also available on EducaPoles (http://www.educapoles.org/documents/sun_shadows_project_student_wprksheet/)

• Flash animation on the polar night can be found on the educational website of the IPF, EducaPoles.http://www.educapoles.org/multimedia/animation_detail/polar_nights/

• Instructions on how to let students make a simple astrolabe

  (http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/AtHomeAstronomy/activity_07.html)

• The exact time (for each time zone): http://time.is/

• Day and night map: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunearth.html

• AHA project: www.ahaproject.be

References

This project and the material produced have been made using and adapting the resources of the following early projects.

• “Sun Shadow Project” (2007) and educational project of the Educational program of the scientific research ANDRILL (www.andrill.org), http://web.me.com/lhuffman/Project_Circle/Sun_Shadows_2009-10.html
• “Sun Shadows project” (2002) http://mrsmith.htmlplanet.com/sunactivity.htm