Mystery
Class Update: February 18, 2005
Today's
Report Includes:
- Is Something More than Day Length Changing?
- Untilt-a-World: Challenge Question #2
- Countdown to the Longitude Clues: Understanding Lat/Long
- This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Times
- Important: Plan Ahead and Mark your Calendars
Is Something More than Day Length Changing?
As you plot the third set of changing day length data on your graphs, keep in mind that sunlight affects all living systems. The sun is at the base of the food chain. Sunlight makes plants grow, animals eat these plants, predators prey on these animals, and so forth.
As day length changes at the Mystery Classes around the planet, stop to think about how the food chain is changing too. For example, during spring in the Northern Hemisphere, sunlight and photosynthesis increase, temperatures rise, and food production increases. The animal movements you track and the signs of spring you witness will be related to daylight in one way or another.
Here's what you'll do:
| First, watch Journey North's founder and Director, Elizabeth Howard, summarize the Sun's central connection to all life | ||
 |
 The Sun's Connection Video Clip (Tips) |
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Then, come back and try these "enlightening" activities:
- Seeing
the Light - As students create webs, they begin to grasp the central
role of sunlight in living systems
- The
Shadow Knows - Students explore shadows and sunlight and make sense
of daily and seasonal patterns
- Follow the Sun - A simple model allows students to track the sun's apparent movement
Untilt-a-World
Last week you discovered that the Earth's axis isn't oriented straight up and down, but instead is tilted in relation to the sun. The tilted axis is shown on this drawing:
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(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)
Countdown to the Longitude Clues--Understanding Lat/Long
The weekly sunrise/sunset time data from the Mystery sites will help you estimate their relative Latitude. When it comes to estimating a site's Longitude, however, the sunrise/sunset time data doesn't really help you figure that out.
To estimate Longitude, you'll be given a different kind of time data in just a few more weeks. It's called GMT or UT time (for Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Time.) And on March 11, we'll give you that GMT data plus instructions on how to estimate a site's approximate Longitude on the Vernal Equinox. Once you have the data and see how it works, you will be amazed!
So this week, it's helpful to get a little head start looking at background information about both Latitude and Longitude, and next week about GMT. That way you'll be ready to use the GMT data when it comes on March 11.
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Understanding
Lat/Long: |
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Link to This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Data
Important: Plan Ahead and Mark your Calendars
Here's the 2005 Mystery Class Schedule so you know what to expect from Journey North. Please be sure to plan ahead.
| February 4- April 15: | Each Friday, Sunrise/Sunset Times are posted for the ten Mystery Sites. |
| March 11: | The "Longitude Clue" is posted. |
| March 18, 25, April 1, 8 & 15: | Interdisciplinary clues from the Mystery Sites are posted each week. (Please Note--out of fairness to all participants, we will only post the clues on their scheduled dates.) |
| April 22: Deadline for Your Answers! | No
late entries will be accepted (out of fairness to all participants,
no exceptions.) |
| April 29: | Mystery Sites Revealed! |
| May 6: | Meet Your Mystery Friends! |
Questions?
See Mystery
Class FAQ's |
|
How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions:
IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message.
1. Address
an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-mclass@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge
Question #2
3. In the body of EACH message, give your answer to ONE of the questions
above.
The Next Mystery Class Update Will Be Posted on February 25, 2005
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