It may be long after the initial project has completed, but the continuation of the measurement of a shadow cast by a 1-meter stick at different latitudes has become an international effort. With assistance from a member of the US Geological Survey who placed a message on a bulletin board, the spring equinox measurement gathered recordings from a variety of locations across the northern hemisphere. Collaborators in Norway, China, Russia, Egypt, the South Pole, and from several locations across the United States sent in their measurements.
Students were amazed by the collaboration and interest in their project. After discussing what they thought the measurements might be, based on their experience with the winter solstice locations from within the United States submitted from collaborators in Wisconsin, Colorado, California and New Mexico, students compared the actual measurements to their predictions for the new locations. Although they attempted to approximate within a range of what they thought the shadow length might be using their previous understanding, they were impressed that the overall pattern of shadow shortening was more striking than they had estimated. One student commented that he didn’t expect there to be as great of a difference between Russia and Norway. He stated that he was surprised at how a few degrees in latitude would result in such a difference. Another student realized the association with the data sent from Egypt to the project itself which led to a history of mathematics discussion. The conversation became suddenly quiet when students reviewed the message from their Amundsen-Scott Station contact stating: “You could almost say either zero or infinity for the shadow length on equinox. But, I think it is more appropriate to say zero since the sun is officially set on equinox. Official sunset time: 0822 UTC on March 22nd.”
Photo courtesy of australyear.blogspot.com
Students have continued to share their questions and project with the South Pole Shadow Team and other collaborators through e-mail. When competing in the regional science fair, one of the students commented that she didn’t think the judges understood their project. “It wasn’t a cure for cancer, or some new invention, it was examining a misconception we had though measurement and understanding the differences in a few degrees can make in the amount of sunlight a location receives. The best part of the project was talking to people who do science and getting their feedback. Even the South Pole Team’s leader mentioned that he didn’t think anyone had done this before. They were so nice to help and it was fun to ask them questions, especially when we called them.”
Most recently a map was created for both the winter and spring dates illustrating the specific locations where measurements were taken.
Sun Shadows - Winter Solstice 2007
Sun Shadows - Vernal Equinox 2008
Students are looking for collaborators from similar latitudes in the Arctic for the summer solstice measurement to compare with the lengths they received from Palmer Station (64.7 S/64.0 W) and Mt. Erebus (77.3 S/ 167.10WE) on winter solstice.