Shadow Data

Record shadow lengths in a table and find the pattern.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 12

A class put a stick in the ground and measured its shadow every hour. They wrote the data in a table.
A bar graph shows the same data. Taller bars mean longer shadows. Can you see the pattern?
The shadow got shorter and shorter until midday, when the sun was highest. Then it got longer again.
Data helps you predict. At 3:00 p.m., the shadow will be even longer than at 2:00 p.m.
Try it with a grown-up! Push a stick into the ground on a sunny day. Measure its shadow with a ruler at a few times, and write the numbers in a table.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:

S2E2.a — Plan and carry out an investigation to determine the effect of the position of the sun in relation to a fixed object on Earth at various times of the day.
S2E2.b — Design and build a structure that demonstrates how shadows change throughout the day.