Mystery Class Reminder: April 12, 2002 Today's Report Includes: One Week and Counting Important Note to Teachers: Rules for Preparing Your Answer Sun Time Slippage? Discussion of CQ #4 Find Anything "Eggciting"? Discussion of CQ #5 Clues Calendar This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Times CLUES From Your Mystery Friends One Week and Counting In just one more week, your Mystery Friends say they will run out of clues. They're wondering if you have figured out where they are? Take a look at their latest clues below. Are you any closer to uncovering their top-secret locations yet? Good luck! Next Friday, April 19, we'll send the final set of clues, along with important instructions on how to submit your Mystery Class answer. Teachers--see the important rules below for preparing your answer. Important Note to Teachers: Rules for Preparing Your Answer As teachers you understand the importance of students carefully reading and following directions. Now it's your turn! In next week's Update, we'll give you all the complete instructions for properly submitting your answer. In the meantime, we want to alert you in advance to a few of the very important rules that you'll need to follow (we'll repeat them again next week): 1. SEND YOUR ANSWER in the BODY OF AN E-MAIL ONLY (NO attachments!) 2. INCLUDE YOUR GRADE IN THE SUBJECT LINE of your E-mail: If you don't include the grade, your answer will be judged with the Grade 12 entries. 3. ANSWERS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN APRIL 26: To be fair to everyone, any answers sent after that date will not be accepted. 4. WARNING: DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ANSWER CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU SEND IT IN: Be Careful!! Make sure you have your answers the way you want them. Once you've submitted your answer, you may not change it or try to send it in again. Only one answer from each class will be accepted. And once your answer is received, we cannot change or correct your mistakes (even simple ones like transposed locations). So be sure to double check your answer before submitting! Sun Time Slippage? Discussion of Challenge Question #4 In last week's update, we asked "What do you notice in this week's sunrise/sunset times for Mystery Classes #6 and #8? What do you think happened? Why doesn't this change the photoperiod trend lines on your graph for these Mystery Classes?" Here's what happened from one week to the next at MC #6 and #8. Both locations experienced a one hour adjustment or shift in their times from the prior week. After weeks of having the sunrise time grow earlier each week, suddenly the sunrise seemed to "slip" later by almost an hour, and so did the sunset too. Why? Because daylight savings time started at these locations. Why didn't this shift affect the photoperiod? Because the one shift affected both sunrise and sunset equally. More importantly, however, is the fact that regardless of what time we say it is, the sun stays up the same amount of time. Please note that in the coming weeks, due to daylight savings time starting or ending, you may see similar one hour changes at other locations. Again, remember that these changes will not affect the photoperiod. Find Anything "Eggciting"? Discussion of Challenge Question #5 In last week's Update, we asked you to describe the results of your egg balancing testing, and tell us whether you were able to draw any conclusion "about whether eggs balance any better on the Equinox than during the other four weeks of testing?" The students from Hillcrest Elementary in Ellsworth WI reached a "unanimous verdict" and set the record straight! They concluded: "That the story of an egg only balancing on the equinox is a myth. Our class ran the egg experiment before, during and after the vernal equinox. Members of my class found they could, with some effort balance eggs before, during, and after the equinox with little trouble. Class members performed these experiments at school as well as at home. In the experiment we performed at school 20 of 24 students got eggs to balance on the equinox, and 19 of those 20 students got eggs to balance each day 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the equinox." Expert Rod Nerdahl, Program Coordinator from the Minneapolis Planetarium reached the same conclusion, calling this story "one of the oldest pieces of seasonal folklore". Read Rod's full explanation: Egguinox Discussion Clues Calendar We'll provide one more set of clues from the Mystery Classes next week and then your answers will be due by the April 26 deadline. Here are some important Mystery Class dates for the coming weeks: April 19: Final Clues Given. April 26: Deadline for Your Answers! (No late entries accepted) May 3: Mystery Sites Revealed! May 10: Meet Your Mystery Friends! 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, April 8, 2002 MYSTERY CLASS SUNRISE SUNSET #1 07:11** 21:07** #2 00:00* 00:00* #3 06:13 18:40 #4 06:13 18:07 #5 06:13 18:33 #6 07:01 20:00 #7 05:41 18:19 #8 06:20 20:35 #9 05:45 18:11 #10 07:03 19:04 ** Journey North Mystery Class #1 has experienced a one hour adjustment to its times since last week, but remember that this adjustment will NOT affect the photoperiod. Due to daylight savings time starting or ending in the coming weeks, you may see one hour changes at other locations. Again, remember that these changes will not affect the photoperiod. The sun stays up the same amount of time regardless of what time we say it is. * Journey North Mystery Class #2 reported: "We're in for a long night." Note: Military time is usually expressed without any punctuation. We have used a ":" between the hours and minutes for clarity.) CLUES From Your Mystery Friends Mystery Class: MC #1: "Our community was named for a gold mining company promoter, who arrived in 1896 and built living quarters for his crew of 50 on the Spit. In 1899, Cook Inlet Coal Fields Company built the original town, a coal mine at 'Bluff Point', and a 7-mile-long railroad which carried the coal to the end of the spit. Various coal mining operations continued until World War I." MC #2: Hungry? Click image for a closer look (or frozen bite) MC #2: "During the summer, approximately 220 people are living here; during the winter, approximately 50. Dogs are no longer allowed here. All of the housing materials, clothing, entertainment and food are brought in by plane. We are famous for our cookies, and pilots ask us to deliver them to their planes. We'll provide the cookie recipe in our Introduction at the end of Mystery Class" MC #3: "Our country has the largest dish in the world, but it's not really that good to eat in." MC #4: "With our neighbor, we share the world's highest lake navigable to large vessels." MC #5: "Our entire island was a prison camp in World War II. We are a part of the United States." MC #6: "Our country's flag uses two colors: blue and white. The name of my country is also a homonym for something used in cooking." MC #7 says "Hi" from way up "high"! MC #7: "My town is located within the world's highest mountains. My town is located along the most popular trekking area in my country called the Khumbu region. The elevation of my town is approx. 3,790 meters (12,434 feet)" See photo on right MC #8: "We live on an island and we are known for our fish farming. Our population is about 4200." MC #9: One of the longest barrier reefs in the world is located off our coast." MC #10: "One of the major lakes in our country has types of fish called Cichlids." The Next Mystery Class Update Will be Posted on April 19, 2002 Copyright 2002 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. 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