fishing for neutrinos

Time Lesson Plan

Investigation:
Time

Objectives:
Practice reading a clock (either analog or digital)
Realize that time varies in different parts of the World
Describe how night and day are a result of the rotation of the Earth
Describe how light and darkness vary by season at the poles of the Earth
Describe how different longitudes (locations east or west) fall in different time zones
Describe the time zones that divide the United States
Discuss military time vs. standard time
Locate the Prime Meridian on a map and discuss itıs importance
Collect data on sunrise and sunset times
Analyze the data to discover patterns
Predict sunrise and sunset times in the future
Compare your data with that obtained at the South Pole for the same time period
Materials:
  1. Clock, globe, flashlight, access to e-mail
  2. U. S. map, world map (optional), clock capable of reading military time (optional), map copies for students to mark up, markers, and world atlas (optional)
  3. Graph paper, or computer equipped with graphing or spreadsheet program
  4. (Optional) - Student access to the Internet through a computer equipped with a communications program
  5. Access to a telephone (for gathering information on time of day, and sunrise / sunset times)
  6. A local newspaper
Activities:
  1. Look at your watch or the clock in the room and record the time to the nearest hour only.
  2. Get out a map of the world and locate your city, a city in another country (east or west of you), and the South Pole in Antarctica.
  3. Place a pin with a piece of tape on it at each location. Connect to local times around the world which can be accessed through the gopher at Austin Hospital at Melbourne Australia. You can find it through the geographic listings under all of the gopher servers in the world, or access through the WWW at gopher.austin.unimelb.edu.au. Write down the time (hour only) on the tape at each location. Check the journal entry posted for the previous day and write down the dates and times that you see posted. You will find two times posted, the time @ the South Pole when the journal entry was made, and eastern standard time (EST). Remember to record the times to the nearest hour only.
  4. Make a chart of the times that you have collected. Put the times in order from latest to earliest. You may do this by hand, or using a graphing program on a computer. Is there a pattern evident in the times that relates to their location on the map? At this point you may want to consider having one of the members of your class record the data using (twenty - four hour) military time. Discuss with the class how this compares to our standard way of recording time, and why it is used in the military.
  5. Write a short paragraph that describes any pattern that you might find in the times from activity three citing the number of hours between each location. Use an atlas of the world as a resource. Find the section that illustrates the time zones across the world. Locate and define the prime meridian. (Hint: find Greenwich, England) How do the times that you discuss in your paragraph relate to this place?
  6. Have a discussion about the fact that time varies across the earth. Have one of the class members act as the sun (holding a light source aimed at the globe in a darkened room), while another class member holds the globe spinning it on it's axis while he/she walks (slowly) around the person holding the light source (sun). This demonstration should allow the students to see why we have night and day as the earth spins on it's axis.
  7. Have students write down the time that the sun rises and sets in the area where they live for one week. Sunrise and sunset times can be found in the weather section of a daily paper, or from the weather information line maintained by most local phone companies. Students can also make direct observations of the sunrise / sunset times in their area and compare these with the written or recorded information. Have students synchronize their watches with the phone company or airport information line times first! Have students chart their data (either by hand, or using a computer equipped with a graphing program) to discover patterns in sunrise / sunset times. Calculate the length of each day in minutes.
  8. Discuss the fact that it takes the earth three hundred and sixty - five days to make a complete revolution around the sun. Discuss the fact that the polar regions experience extended periods of light and darkness because of their orientation as the earth revolves about the sun. Place a small piece of masking tape at each pole on the globe. Conduct the experiment described in number six. Can you see that the poles experience these periods of light and darkness? Access the Antarctic Telecommunications Program journal entry that discusses light and darkness at the South Pole.
  9. (Optional) Send e-mail to Tom Spencer between January tenth and February first and attempt to arrange an interactive chat over the Internet. Remember that satellite visibility times precess throughout the season. The satellite must be visible at the South Pole when interactive sessions are scheduled. The times for these sessions will have to be arranged well in advance of the chat. You can find out about the times that are available by e-mailing me.

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