Yearlong Photoperiod Extension and Assessment Teacher Mary Gerber conducted an extension of the Mystery Class photoperiod concepts. Near the end of the Mystery Class season, she used the Sunrise/Sunset Lookup resource to compile weekly sunrise, sunset and photoperiod data for a full year at three places: her own location, and at two other Mystery Class locations. Then, she made a large size yearlong poster graph of these photoperiods and used it to ask questions of the students and assess their learning about seasons and photoperiod. Mary's comments, graph, and approach are below. Mary Gerber Grade 5 Teacher R.P.T. Coffin School Brunswick, Maine mgerber@brunswick.k12.me.us "Feeling pretty confident about a few of the locations, I went ahead before the Big Reveal of the secret locations, and I finished the photoperiod graph for two of those sites and our town of Brunswick, Maine for the remainder of the year. (You can just as easily wait until the Big Reveal, so you know a few locations for certain). "I did it mostly because I was curious what would appear. Now I am thinking it might be a good way to see if the kids learned anything about the seasons from our work on Journey North. "What conclusions can they draw from the yearlong graph poster? Prior to showing the graph to the children I will ask them to predict where the lines would be drawn for the remainder of the year. I've included a 'wordle' to help with vocabulary. I took photographs of the poster in sections and pasted them into a Word document, while not perfect I think it still works. You will have to put legal size paper into into the printer in order to print the graph. 2009-2010 Year-Long Photoperiods for Bird Island, South Georgia; Homer, Alaska; and Brunswick, Maine (Click image to enlarge) "Use this graph and ask students to 'explain what you have learned about photoperiods and seasons. On another sheet of paper write all you can about these concepts. Use the Wordle sheet to help.' " Wordle Sheet (Click image to enlarge) If you have advice to share, please write to Journey North >> Back to Teacher Tips Page Facebook Pinterest Twitter © 1997 – 2019 Journey North. All rights reserved.