Mystery Class Mystery Class
Today's News Report Your Sightings How to Use Journey North Search Journey North

Mystery Class Update: February 23, 2001

Today's Report Includes:


New Moon, New Data
There's a New Moon in the sky, so it may be darker where you are tonight. But have no fear, your Mystery Sites are here! And they have provided their third set of sunrise/sunset data, to shed a little "light" on the secret Mystery Class locations! (Of course, some locations more than others.)

After you have graphed this week's photoperiod changes, what can you determine now about the locations of your Mystery Classes?

And for all you lunar lovers out there, here's a little extra about the New Moon:


The Sun's the One!
As you know, Journey North tracks several migratory animals each spring. Why do you think we also track changes in daylight?

Sunlight plays a paramount role in all living things. From plants to animals, changes in the availability of sunlight impact the entire web of life. Over the next months, all the animals you track and all the signs of spring you witness will be related to daylight in one way or another.

To help you discover these connections, this would be a good time to look at the:

Try This!

  1. Select one of the Journey North migratory species.

  2. Find out where this animal fits in the food web. (What does this animal eat, i.e.what is its prey? What is it's prey's prey? What plants does the prey eat?, etc.) Go back through the food web until you reach the sun as the source of food energy for this system.

  3. Draw a diagram of your animal's food web.

  4. Next, think about ways this food web changes during the seasons.

  5. Now, see if you can answer:

Challenge Question #2
"How do seasonal changes in photoperiod affect your animal's food web?"

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below)


This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Times
Remember, the secret Mystery sites recorded their times last Monday, the same day you collected your own local sunrise/sunset data.

Journey North Mystery Class

Sunrise/Sunset Data

Data For: Monday, February 19, 2001

MYSTERY CLASS

SUNRISE

SUNSET

#1

07:23

18:19

#2

07:26

19:28

#3

06:23

19:34

#4

07:07

18:43

#5

00:00

00:00*

#6

07:06

17:23

#7

06:56

20:13

#8

06:52

18:22

#9

06:29

19:03

#10

07:02

17:55

* Journey North Mystery Class #5 reported 00:00 for their times and said "The sun has not set for 4 months...but soon, very soon it will happen!"

Note: Military time is usually expressed without any punctuation. We have used a ":" between the hours and minutes for clarity.)


How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question:

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 the message write: Challenge Question #2
3. In the body of the message, answer the question above.


The Next Mystery Class Update Will be Posted on March 2, 2001

Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form

Today's News Today's News Report Your Sightings How to Use Journey North Search Journey North