SCIENCE CONCEPT:
- The air temperature at different locations throughout a
community can have different readings due to underlying
surfaces at each location.
STUDENT OBJECTIVE:
- Students will select eight locations around the school
yard to place thermometers to observe and record their
individual readings. Thermometers should be placed in a
sunny location but in different surroundings such as a
grassy area, playground, soil, to get a variance in
readings.
OVERVIEW:
- In this activity, the student will be placing thermometers
around the school yard with different variables to effect
the individual readings. The thermometers will all be placed
in the sun but in a different setting. One will be placed in
a grassy area, another placed near the playground, another
placed around soil. At different times during the day teams
of students will take temperature readings at the designated
areas and record their results. They will observe that the
areas chosen for recording will have different readings even
though all thermometers are in the sun and the readings are
done at the same time.
TEACHER TEXT:
- We all know that the energy from the sun heats the Earth.
Some surfaces of the Earth get hotter than others. Surfaces
with darker areas are hotter. Dark surfaces absorb more
energy from sunlight than light surfaces. Students
will through their observations discover that the Earth receives
the most radiant energy when the sun's rays are more direct and
that the dark surfaces absorb more radiant than light surfaces.
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PREPARATION TIME:
- 10 minutes.
LESSON TIME:
- 45 minutes.
TEACHER PREP:
- Gather materials.
WORDS TO KNOW:
- radiant energy
- absorption
- energy
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