We have been waiting patiently for a sunny day to allow us to participate in an outdoor shadow investigation. The weather today provided the ideal conditions for us to explore shadows around us. Class 1 & 2 worked collaboratively to undertake some, or all, of the following tasks as appropriate:
- Identify the compass point direction of our playground layout
- Sketch the direction of the Sun on a bird’s eye view map of the playground area
- Record shadows from objects in our playground environment
- Trace round our own shadows, noting their orientation
- Measure the length of our shadows using metric units
Class 2 are going to continue our science investigation by conducting a fair test that the boys and girls have designed. Mia is our control object that we will use to block the Sun and create a shadow. We will measure and record both the direction and length of the shadow at different times of day to observe any changes. She will stand in the same location each time. Class 2 have predicted that the direction and length will vary dependent on the position of the Sun in the sky! Do you think their prediction is correct?
# Successful Learners & Effective Contributors
Update – Today Class 2 completed our investigation into shadow direction, angle and length. We discovered that at the start of the day Mia’s shadow was long and got gradually shorter as the Sun was higher in the sky. The shadow length then began to reduce in the afternoon. Also, we measured the angle of the shadowa and it was moving approximately 20 degrees every hour!
