Science Discoveries

As we finish up our unit on daily and seasonal changes, we have been talking about day and night activities, and the sun. We made a list of what we already knew, and we were able to answer some interesting questions. We performed two experiments using the sun.

1. We each cut out a yellow sun and stuck it on dark blue paper, then we put it in our window and left it alone for about a week. We made predictions about what we thought would happen. Some scientists thought the paper would feel warm, some thought the sun would make a mark, or the paper would lighten, others thought that there would be no change. Ask your scientist what happened!

2. We waited for a sunny day and then went outside in the morning, and again in the afternoon to trace our shadows. Students worked in pairs and used chalk to trace each others' shadow on the concrete, and took note of the direction their shadow was pointing in the morning. In the afternoon, the scientists found that their shadow was pointing the opposite direction. Why did this happen?

We will have a chance to talk more about the sun, from an energy perspective, in the early spring.