Sun Angle 2007/2008

NSTA

2008-03-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

What's the worst time to give a presentation at an NSTA conference? Early Saturday morning. No, I take that back. Early Saturday morning when Bill Nye is speaking at the same time! I was told to bring enough handouts for 130 people. I brought 125 handouts home. That was only because one of the folks in my audience wanted four of them. Oh well, I finally got to meet one of the people that sends me data each month. Thank you for coming Carol. By the way, the other person who came teaches in my school. I thanked her for coming too. She said "Yeah, I got here to late to get into Bill Nye's talk, so I came to yours."

Clear Skies,

Charlie

For the Last Time!

2008-03-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

As I type this snow is falling once again on my small coastal community. There is hope, the vernal equinox is on the 20th! If it's at all humanly possible, take your final reading on that day. I'm putting the finishing touches on my NSTA presentation this weekend, so if you have anything you want me to say, or any images you want me to include, send them ASAP.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

February Data and a Favor

2008-02-10T05:47:00.001-08:00

In my section of the country we have Presidents' Day week off. I'm taking my reading when the students get back. Feel free to take your reading whenever you want from now until the end of February. Also, I'm putting my NSTA presentation together for next month. I'd like to add some anecdotes on how you use the data you, and we, have been collecting since fall. Send along your stories, and I'll include them in my presentation.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

It's January!

2008-01-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

Feel free to send you information any time now for January. I'm sorry I haven't been more active, but I have this other project called the Pringles Challenge that started on January 2nd. I usually get about thirty schools to participate, this year I had 127! I've been very busy.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T02:39:00.001-08:00

Welcome back! If you weren't able to make an observation at the end of 2007, do one this week and send it along.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Winter Solstice Reading

2007-12-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings! This is probably one of the most important readings. It will be you lowest sun angle! In a perfect world it would happen on December 22nd, the winter solstice, in reality we all know better! Take your winter reading and send it to me as close as you can to the 22nd.

Clear Skies,

Happy Solstice,

Charlie

November Data Failure

2007-12-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

Someone sent me their data today, and it failed because the file was too large. I assume that's because of images. Try sending the images in batches.

Charlie

NSTA Presentation

2007-11-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, sit up straight. I'm presenting this activity at next year's NSTA National Convention in Boston. It's part of a four part presentation I'm doing on problems using student data, which is one of the threads at the convention. I'll be incorporating some of your images in my PowerPoint. If you do not want images of your school or students shown in this type of venue, drop me a line, and it won't happen. Naturally, I want to have as much data as possible to show, so please keep up with it. Also, include stories on how you collect your data. Any questions? Do'n hesitate to e-mail me. Once again, be sure to use cflindgren@comcast.net to post your data especially if you have images. My school e-mail server is blocking images. Keep an eye out for Comet Holmes. I'm going to highlight it in my November data.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

November Data

2007-11-13T02:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to November!

Feel free to take your reading anytime this week or next. We only have school two days next week, and I'm sure that's true for many of you. Also, please be sure to include the name of your school in your posting. It makes my life a lot easier. Don't forget to include images and anecdotes. Best image will be posted on the main sun angle page.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Comet Holmes

2007-10-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hiya,

Have any of you seen Comet Holmes? Go to spaceweather.com for all the details. It is relatively easy to spot. Over the past several days it has blossomed from a 17th magnitude object to 2.5! That's a change of more than 1,000,000 times in brightness! I saw the comet for the first time Monday. It just looks like a star unless you use a pair of binoculars or a telescope. The comet has no tail. All you see is a big gray patch of fuzzy light. It is great!! Be sure to include any sightings in your observations.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

October Data

2007-10-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

Feel free to take your reading anytime this week. Closer to the 21st would be better, but fit it into your schedule curriculum-wise or weatherwise. Please send your results to my e-mail, not the school's that will only slow things down. Send it to cflindgren@comcast.net Also, if I don't get a reading from you this month, and you didn't send me one last month, I'll assume you are not participating and remove your school from the table. Tell us what you're doing with the data. Tell us how you collect your data. Tell us how things have changed climate-wise in your location from September until now. What big things happen in your school in October? We of course are anxiously watching our beloved Red Sox as they attempt to try to duplicate their 2004 performance. One furniture dealer actually ran a campaign early in the season where if the Red Sox won the World Series, any furniture you bought during that block of time (it ended April 15th) would be free!!!! I hope all is going well. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you with this. The pictures you are sending are great. If you send me more I'll add them to your page, and archive one of the older images.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

From Oregon

2007-10-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

So, as luck would have it the sun was out on the 21st and we were able to go out and measure the sun angle!! In Estacada, Oregon, the students measured 45 degrees at solar noon time. Deb

The Story So Far

2007-09-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

We are off to a great start! Just a few housekeeping things. Last year I ended up with a huge number of footnotes on the table. Most of those were because people couldn't do the observation near the 21st of the month, so I added a note telling when they actually took the reading. I decided to correct that problem by actually adding the date to the angle reading. For those of you who haven't posted yet. Do so as quickly as possible so that everyone can see your information. If you know that you can't participate, please tell me. No hard feelings. I totally understand. Also please only send the information to my e-mail address at cflindgren@comcast.net. Some of you sent it to my school address. That slows the process down. I also wasn't able to forward messages with attachments, the server must be blocking them. So please only use the comcast address. Speaking of the information, how do you know the accuracy of your answer? For the first day of fall (or spring) it's simple. Subtract your answer from 90 and you should get your latitude.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

Sun Angle / Oklahoma City/ Mon. 9-24

2007-09-25T19:14:00.001-07:00

Heritage Hall Middle School / North OKC / 9-24-07

Local noon: 1222 hrs.
Angle of sun: 50 degrees (used both protractor at ground level and protractor on
meter stick wtih plumb bob)
OKC temp: 84 F

Sunrise: 719 hrs Sunset: 1924 hrs (central standard time)
Wind: south at 16 mph
Pressure: 29.97 in. steady

We took a picture, but do not have parent permission to post yet.

Thank you for organizing this and giving us an opportunity to participate in your research.

Kay Emde
8th gr. Earth/Space Science

The first day of Autumn in Claremont NC

2007-09-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
We measured yesterday and our sun angle was 50 degrees in Western NC! Will send picture later!
The kids enjoyed remeasuring today at noon.

Equinox at South Mountain

2007-09-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I'm pleased to be participating. It just so happened that my honors class fell at solar noon today. I was a bit nervous about getting permission to take the kids out, but the AP was very interested in it herself and gave us the OK. My students were VERY interested and insisted on learning how to take measurements themselves. OUr reading was 48 degrees, the temp outside was 30C and Sunrise/Sunset fell at 5:57/6:00.

In the beginning----

2007-09-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was so pleased to see my students get into this activity as strongly as they did--one even came back after school (on a Friday no less) to ask additional questions. Once we work out our internal technical issues this should hold to be a most promising learning activity. I enjoyed reading the others who have indicated that they too are virgin bloggers, it is nice to know that there are a few around. TO THE FUTURE-----

macon middle school

2007-09-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

It's partly cloudy today but we're going to give it a try. First time. I was going to do it last year but it was cloudy that day too! If we don't get anything today we will do this again on Monday. I thought today was the equinox, but it's really Sunday, eh?
Thanks for all your work getting this together!
Susan Steiner
7th grade Science
Macon Middle School

It's Time for the First Reading!

2007-09-18T02:40:00.000-07:00

"There's a breeze in the trees, and a chill on the hill." I think that's an old State of Maine phrase. Anyway, Fall arrives on Sunday. Take your first reading as close as possible to Sunday and send it to me ASAP. If you go to the data table you will see that there are almost 60 (count them 60!!!) schools doing this. That's fantastic! Please send as much information as you want, and I'll add it to your page. The minimum could be only the reading. It would be great if you could also send me the times of sunrise and sunset, length of daylight, and temperature (either C or F) when you take the reading at your local noon. In the "comments" section tell me how you took the measurements, and how you arrived at your final answer. Pictures are always welcome, but check with your school for any legal limitations to showing the faces of students. Please send your results to cflindgren@comcast.net . Any questions or problems, don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Clear Skies,

Charlie

thanks

2007-09-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, Charles, you are incredible...thanks for the great coyote on LBJ's posting page...My kids will be thrilled to be participating. I'm thinking I may use some of the cities various schools are in for a ten days of temperature data collection exercise we are going to start in a week or so. That might be a fun tie in. We will be plotting max and min temps in various cities around the world (it is all actually just an exercise in mean, median and mode but the kids get pumped about being in different cities.) Have a great week. Vicki

How to Take the Measurements

2007-08-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

I've created a page illustrating the different methods people have used in the past for taking these measurements. If you go to http://www.gatesscience.info/teamescience/project/sunangle/2008/sunangle08.htm and then click on the link given in Step 5 it will take you to the page.

Charlie

Another Newbie

2007-08-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog too. How do we know our "day" to post information?

Greetings

2007-08-13T19:32:00.001-07:00

I too am new to this blogging world. I will be sending you data from Waimea Canyon Middle School in Kauai. Aloha

My question is what time do you really want me to do this... we do not honor Daylight Savings time here in Hawaii. Do you want my noon, or three hours from Los Angeles time?

can you hear me now

2007-08-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

hello everyone,
just checking to see if I can work this blog correctly, I hate to admit that this but I am a newbee to blogging and to teaching
T minus 22 hours to inservice and 1 week till the future scientists arrive!
Augh!
karyn

Thanks for Organizing this

2007-08-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

I look forward to participating.

S. Koziol

Welcome!

2006-08-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings! This will be where we meet to exchange ideas, and solve problems. I suggest you check this site at least once a week, but definitely go to it the week that your observation is due. This is a very restricted blog. The only people who can make postings to it are the folks who are actually doing the Sun Angle Lab with me.

Clear Skies,

Charlie Lindgren