Created By: Brittany Bumpus

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Content Area: Earth and Space Science & Technology

Description of Activity:

Based on the Common Core State Standards for third grade science, students are to learn how to tell the time of day based on the sun’s position in the sky. In order to begin teaching students to reach this standard, I as the teacher, must first teach my students how to record the time of day based on the shadow a sun leaves behind. During this activity, my classroom will be video chatting with another classroom in Alaska. Both classrooms will be learning about how the patterns of the shadows differ based on the time of day.

The first step to this activity is for both classrooms in Washington and Alaska to have the student’s research different ways to tell time. After coming up with a list of strategies to tell time, I will introduce the idea of making a sundial. Our class will then make our own sundial with a 50 centimeter long stick on our schoolyard ground. Each teacher will explain to their classroom what a sundial is and how it works with the sun to produce a shadow that can determine the time of day. Every hour each classroom will go and check their sundial to record the patterns the students see and the movement the shadows have made. The students will record their findings in a sketchbook where they will draw what they see from the sundial. At the end of the day, both classrooms will video chat with one another showing their sketches of the shadow patterns throughout the day and how the shadows are similar or different based on where the children live. After students have grasped the concept of the patterns of the shadow changing based on the sun’s position in the sky, our classrooms will transition into teaching our students about the sun’s daily rotation.

 Technology Standards:

EARL 1.2 Collaborate: Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others

This technology standard is met in my activity because both classrooms will be video chatting with one another explaining the patterns they saw and predictions or questions they had throughout the scientific activity. This standard is also met because both classrooms are determining if what they observed in their state has the same result with the other state or if their results are different.

EARL 1.3 Investigate and Think Critically: Research, manage and evaluate information and solve problems using digital tools and resources.

This standard is met in my activity because my students are researching about sundials, managing to make a sundial and learn how to properly use it, and evaluating the patterns of the shadows they see throughout the day. After investigating the sundial and shadows it makes throughout the day the students are then using video chatting with another class to think critically on what they observed and come to a conclusion on why the shadows changed throughout the day.