Final Report - December, 2004

This is our final report from the 8th grade science class at St. Thomas Aquinas School in Indianapolis, IN, USA. During this project we learned about some of the countries and states that were also participating. Each day during the data collection week we would take a temperature reading and record it. We used the internet to find out the daily sunrise time.

After analyzing the data and graphing the locations we chose there were definite patterns that showed up. North of the Equator the temperatures were lower and the number of minutes of daylight decreased as you traveled to higher latitudes. Since it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere these locations were experiencing higher temperatures and more minutes of daylight. As Locations moved farther south past the equator the number of minutes of daylight continued to increase. The temperatures were consistently warmer near the equator. Australia, the location farthest south had the 64 minutes of more daylight then the closest competition but temperatures were not as warm as at the equator.

Because of the Earth's tilt toward or away from the sun some locations get more direct or indirect rays of sunlight. During the winter months the rays will be more indirect. That combined with less minutes of daylight means the temperature will be colder. Just the opposite occurs during the summer.

E-mail: shoy@sta-indy.org