Shadows Lab

Day 1:

• Discuss with students what they already know about the earth’s tilt, the sun, and rotation/ revolution. Have them predict about their shadows will look like at different times of the day.
• Have them draw their predictions for 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 2:00 pm using the form found in resources. You can have them add this to their interactive science notebooks.
• Have students share out their predictions. What evidence do they have to support their hypothesis?

Day 2:

• Have students review their predictions for shadows. 
• Tell students that we are going outside to test out their hypothesis!
• Students will need to go outside and have an area where the drawings will get sunlight.
• Students will draw the outline of their bodies with chalk.
• They will draw our observations using the same document from day 1.
• What do they observe at 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00?
• Where is the sun during each time?
• Students will share their hypothesis and their findings in a flip grid.

Day 3:

• Ask students what they learned from the experiment. 
• What happened to their shadows?
• When were their shadows the longest?
• When were they the shortest?
• Give students times throughout the day. Have them show with their arms if the shadows would be long or short. 
• What weather must be happening for shadows to occur?
• Students will create a drawing of themselves in the middle of the page. 
• They will draw a shadow in the morning, middle of the day, and in the evening.  
• This will go in their science interactive notebooks