Graphing Shadow Data

 Objective: Find relationships between average temperatures and shadow lengths for areas of equivalent latitude and shadow lengths at the equinox (September or March) and Solstice (December).

 Materials: Shadow Measurement Data Chart, graph paper, ruler, pencil

 Procedure:

  1. Group all the locations into the following categories:
    1. 0-30° N Latitude
    2. 0-30° S Latitude
    3. 31-45° N Latitude
    4. 31-45° S Latitude
    5. 46-90° N Latitude
    6. 46-90° S Latitude
  3. For each category of locations, find the mean shadow length and temperature for the equinox measurement.
  4. Make a vertical bar graph showing the mean shadow lengths for the six latitude categories. Make another vertical bar graph showing the mean temperatures for the six latitude categories.

 Investigative Questions: 

  1. What seems to happen to the lengths of shadows as you move north away from the equator?
  2. What seems to happen to the lengths of shadows as you move south away from the equator?
  3. What seems to happen to the temperatures as you move north away from the equator?
  4. What seems to happen to the temperatures as you move south away from the equator?
  5. Find the range of the set of all temperatures.  (Range = Maximum Temperature – Minimum Temperature)

 BACK TO SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES PAGE