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DAY AND NIGHT
Procedure
The actions of students and teachers and the interactions among and between students and teachers:
Number Two Graphic

What Teachers Do

  1. Introduce the Learning Experience in both the math and science classes. (Both teachers shared these students.) Review the Vocabulary handout or assign it as homework prior to the activity
  2. Introduce the statement "Length of day is a cyclic change". Discuss the Length of Day handout, the Satellite Photos, and the Sample Spreadsheets
  3. Conduct a Length of Day Symposium, using the symposium outline below

Length of Day Symposium

Describe Patterns
Show graphs from different latitudes in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

  • Include vocabulary words: inverse, transformation, equator, ecliptic, rotation, latitude,
  • symmetric, tropics (Cancer, Capricorn), nodes, range, equinox, mirror image
  • Include points of intersection. Compare different hemispheres
  • Start with Sunrise/set overheads showing patterns
  • Then, show length of day using same latitudes

Demonstration using Globe and Light

  • Discuss terminator, rotation with relation to the sun
  • Discuss ecliptic, 23º, tropics, solstice, equinox

Satellite Photo

Discuss the world map

  • Discuss the relationship to climate, seasons, and types of vegetation due to the sun’s position

Biological clocks

Autumn leaves – based on length of day
Flowering

  • Short day flower (forest)
  • Long day flowers (prairie)

Animal-Hibernation-fur changes migration time

Pattern for Dinosaur distributes

  • Autumn: warm but the polar areas still had long periods of darkness
  • Dinosaurs probably migrated to get to areas of more daylight- end line of migration of polar dinosaurs

Growing Seasons- plants need a certain amount of time to grow.

Introduce the report-writing assignment and the Rubric of the Sunrise-Sunset Project.

Divide students into teams of 2 or 3 and assign each group a specific latitude and the Sunrise Sunset Length of Day handout.  In math class, the teams organize their data on spreadsheets and graphs, using the Spreadsheet Information handout, Sample Graphs, making copies of results to be shared with the other teams.

  1. In math class, share the graphs, analyzing them for patterns, symmetries and cycles. Ask students to make predictions using the graphs.
  2. At the same time, in science class, students retrieve satellite photos from the Internet to help students understand the earth’s rotation and revolution.
  3. Assign a written report discussing length of day, including all its components as a cyclic change.  Distribute the handout Writing the Paper.

What Students Do

Students participate in this Learning Experience in both math and science classes.

  1. Complete Vocabulary handout.
  2. Participate in the Length of Day Symposium.
  3. Use Spreadsheets and Spreadsheet Information and Prepare Graphs as a team.
  4. Discuss team graphs, examining for symmetries and cycles, and making predictions.
  5. Research satellite photos from the Internet, to better understand the Earth’s revolution and rotation.
  6. Write a report on the length of day, using the handout Writing the Paper.

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