Journey North Mystery Class Spring 2005

Mystery Class Update: April 1, 2005

Today's Report Includes:

No April Fooling--More Clues Have Arrived!
Breaking News on Bionic Shoes
Scrambled? Fried? Or Upright? Challenge Question #7
All Things Being Equal? Discussion of CQ #5
Time Slipping Away?: Discussion of CQ #6
Important ADVANCE Notice to Teachers: Rules for Preparing Your Answer
This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Times
CLUES from Your Mystery Friends
Teachers: Plan Ahead and Mark your Calendars

No April Fooling--More Clues Have Arrived!
Your mystery friends wouldn't trick you. Along with sending their latest set of the sunrise/sunset data below, you'll find the latest clues. We'll post clues for just the next two weeks. Pay close attention, because the clues will continue to get more specific each time, and help bring you closer to unlocking the mystery.

Breaking News on Bionic Shoes
Forget Adidas, Nike, Puma and all the others--have you heard the latest news? There's a cool new invention called "Latitude Shoes". A pair of these allows anyone who wears them to travel aloft around the globe at their own Latitude in just 24 hours. Now that's some hang time! Do you know any athlete that can do that?!

More on this breaking news story is in today's April 1st Latitude Sun Times newspaper, which can be hard to find--but we've provided a copy for you today. We hope you'll find it "uplifting"!

Link to
Breaking News "Latitude Shoes"

Scrambled? Fried? Overeasy? Upright?
Time's Up! Your egg balancing experiment should be complete. But what have you concluded from your testing? Review your test results and then let us know:

Challenge Question #7:
"Is there some sort of cosmic 'balance' that makes eggs stand on their own on the Equinoxes, but not on other days? "Describe the results of your egg balance tests. How many eggs balanced during each test week? From these results, can you draw any conclusion about whether eggs balance any better on the Equinox than during the other four weeks of testing? Any worse? About the same?"	*Send us your "eggceptional" pictures!*

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

All Things Being Equal? Discussion of CQ #5
Some of you noticed on the Equinox that many locations did not appear to have exactly twelve hours of equal day and night. So we asked you "Why don't all locations appear to have EXACTLY twelve hours of day and night on the Equinox?"

Congratulations to all the classes that answered this question. There are several reasons why not all places on Earth appear to receive 12 hours of daylight and night during the Equinox. One of these reasons is because photoperiod may be seen and recorded improperly. Another reason is that refraction of the sunlight through the atmosphere can cause a distorted image, affecting sunrise and sunset times.

Unlock all the details about why all the locations don't have exactly 12 hours on the Equinox:

All Things Being Equal?

Time Slipping Away? Discussion of CQ #6
In last week's update, we asked "Do you see any unique changes in any site's sunrise/sunset times this week? How do these changes compare to the site's prior sunrise/sunset time trends? Why do you think they occurred? Is the site's photoperiod trend affected by the changes you see?"

The correct answer didn't slip by Homeschoolers from Croydon, NH. Last week Mystery Classes #5 and #7 both had a sunrise/sunset data shift, and these students answered that:

"MC #5 has strange data this week. Their sunrise occurred almost an hour earlier, as did their sunset. Our guess is that they have changed their clocks for daylight savings time a week earlier than we do, thus, the change in specific times, but no change in photoperiod trend."

Right you are! Daylight Savings Time ended at Mystery Classes #5 and #7. As a result, both of those locations experienced a one hour adjustment or shift in their times from the prior week. After weeks of having the sunrise time grow later each week, suddenly the sunrise time seemed to dramatically "slip" earlier by almost an hour, and so did the sunset time. Why? All because daylight savings time ended at these locations.

Why didn't this shift affect the photoperiod? Because the one hour 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. As one class said, "It doesn't change the photoperiod trend because people change their clocks, and the time on the clocks doesn't have any effect on how long the photoperiod lasts. Man can change their clock but cannot change how fast or slow the earth spins."

Please note that in the coming weeks, due to daylight savings time at other locations either ending or starting, you may see other changes at other locations. Again, remember that these changes will not affect the photoperiod.

Important ADVANCE Notice to Teachers: Rules for Preparing Your Answer
We'll provide more new clues from the Mystery Classes for the next two weeks, and then answers will be due by the April 22 deadline.

Please note, full detailed instructions on how and when to submit your answers will be provided in the next two Updates.

In the meantime, we want to alert you in advance to a few of the very important rules that you'll need to follow:

1. Send your answer IN THE BODY of an e-mail (** No Attachments! **)

2. Be sure to INCLUDE YOUR GRADE IN THE SUBJECT LINE of your E-mail (If you don't, your answer will be judged with the Grade 12 entries.)

3. DEADLINE: ANSWERS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN APRIL 22, 2005
(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, and 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 (if your class has several groups/teams, then each group can submit one answer). 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!

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.

Link to This Week's Sunrise/Sunset Data

CLUES from Your Mystery Friends
Here is the third set of interdisciplinary clues from the Mystery Sites themselves.

Link to This Week's Clues from Your Mystery Friends

Teachers: 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 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 your message write: Challenge Question #7
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 April 8, 2005