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Title:
| Shadows |
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Description:
| Learn how the sun's position affects shadows during the day. Find out how to tell time using knowledge of shadows location. Discover how people in Ancient Egypt and Rome could tell the time by the suns shadow. Learn how to make sundials to tell time. There is a link to eThemes resource on measuring shadows. Includes lesson plans, in class projects and activities, photographs, and interactive and animated images. |
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Grade Level:
| 2, 3, 4 |
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Resource Links:
| Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics, and You: Measuring with Shadows
Here is a fun way to learn how shadows change according to the sun's position in the sky. Click and drag the slider to view how T-Rex's shadow changes its position and length.
Sundials: How They Work
Learn about sundials and how they work. Scroll down the page and click on the "What is a Sundial" link to learn more about sun clocks. Select the "Build a Simple Sundial" to make paper sundial. NOTE: The site leads to websites with ads.
Earliest Clocks
Read about the first known sundials from Egypt in the "Sun Clock" part of the page. NOTE: The reading level is for older students.
Telling Time in Ancient Rome
Learn how Ancient Romans could tell the time using sundials. Includes a picture of a sundial.
Sundial Sculptures
Click on thumbnails to view larger images of several different sundials. NOTE: The site leads to websites with ads.
Sundial Glossary
View the image of a sundial along with a glossary of terms. NOTE: The reading level is for older students.
Human Sundials
Find out what a human sundial is. Click on the "Go to the Picture Gallery for Ideas" link to view photographs of human sundials.
Eye on the Sky: Lesson Plan: Sundials: Observing and Using Shadows
Here is a lesson plan for 1st through 3rd grade students where kids can learn how to assemble a sundial, tell time using shadows, and understand why shadows change positions. Find out about materials needed, students' prerequisites, teachers' preparation, and find worksheets on the blue section in the left column. The lesson is illustrated with photographs.
Eye on the Sky: Lesson Plan: What Makes Shadows?
Here is another lesson plan for 1st through 3rd grade students along with in-class activities that involve noticing movement of shadows, sun position, and drawing shadows. Includes a worksheet and examples of completed activity.
Eye on the Sky, Feet on the Ground: Chapter One
Learn how light and opaque objects create shadows. Find out how and in what direction shadows change during the day, and what the suns path is. Includes activities, discussion questions, analysis, and schematic drawings.
Shadow Sticks and the Sun
Here is an activity where kids can use a stick and a compass. Students can learn about local time, latitude, and changes in shadows throughout a day and a year. Click on photographs to enlarge them.
Making a Sun Clock
Find out why a compass is needed for building an accurate sun clock. Learn about magnetic and geographic north poles, solar and standard time, and find out how they effect finding exact time.
Build a Sundial
Learn how to build a sundial. Find out what binary numbers are and view photographs of the Hila Binary Sundial.
Projecting Shadows
Use these interactive lights to produce objects shadows on the walls. Can you spot what is wrong with shadows?
eThemes Resource: Math: Measuring Shadows
These sites explain why shadows change their length depending on the time of day and the season. Find out how to determine the height of an object using a shadow stick and ratios. Includes an interactive activity that lets you change the location of the sun and see how that changes the shadow length. There are several instructions for conducting experiments with shadows.
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Education Standards:
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MO Standards:
1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 7
If you are an eMINTS teacher and standards have not been defined for your
state, click the button below to request that they be assigned to this resource.
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