November, 2000
July, 2002
Report Gallery of Schools
- Sekolah Alam, Jakarta, Indonesia
- Port Lincoln Primary School, South Australia
- St. Jude's School, Quebec, Canada
- Shantinikan High School, Warangal, India
- I.I.S.S. "G La Pira" Pozzallo, Italy
- Chesney Elementary School, Duluth, Georgia
- Francisco
Morales High School
Naranjito, Puerto Rico
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Our school, Sekolah Alam, which could be best translated in english as "the Natural school" , is an environmental-based school, whose vision is to enable children to learn from the wishdom of their surounding nature. Most of the activities are done outdoor, in order to maximize the student interaction with nature. Therefore when we heard about the noonday project we were quite eager to register. since this kind of activity is quite aligned with our teaching method.
We prepare the observation station in the center of our football field, in order to avoid any obstruction at all. The field preparation was started on 10.00 AM in order to have enough time before noon. The measuring device is made from bamboo stick and, on the direction of the sunlight we laid a tracing paper. Since we are living very near to the equator, unlike the location in sub tropic area, we always had a very short shadow during noon, so we wre only prepare les than 50 cms long paper trace. The students had been previously trained about the theoritical aspect of the project by using the material from the project website and also from other resources, especially for the trigonomtery aspect. The measurement stared at 11.15 AM and the measurement was made every 15 minutes. At 11.15 the shadow length was 26.2 sm.. and at noon the shadow reach the shortest length of 14 cm before increasing again until 22 cm (at the opposite direction) at 12.30. After the measurement the tracing paper were taken back to the classroom to be re-measured for accuracy. Then by using Micrsoft Excel spreadsheet we calculated the sun's angle at the shortest shadow at noon time. From the datasheet in the project's website, we choose as the partner site the data from Charles Brant Chesney Elementary school in Duluth Georgia because of the proximity in observation date. The result is quite amazing we've found that the earth's circumference is 40,007.88 km !!, which is prety close to the benchmark of 40,008 km. The students were very proud about the experiments, and the most important thing is that now, they have new reason to fall in love with science !!!! Thanks for all Novi Hardian 7th Grade Teacher Sekolah Alam Jakarta Indonesia Top |
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We
are 6 students from the year 7 Maths group. We attend the Port Lincoln
Primary School. Port Lincoln has a population of about 13000 and is in
South Australia. We conducted our measurements on Friday 18th March, a
clear sunny day. We used a meter ruler supported by a science tripod. A
spirit level ensure our 90 degree angle. We measured every 2 minutes
from 13:15 to 13:45. (South Australia has day light saving.) We drew a triangle scaled by 1:10 ratio using a geoliner to measure the perpendicular angle. We also constructed the same triangle using a compass for the 90 degree angle. In both cases we calculated the angle to be 33 degrees. We chose Chelsea Middle School to partner with . The central angle was 75 degrees the distance between us is 8563.65 kms. We calculated the circumference to be 41105.52 kms. The percentage error was 2.8% Here are some photos.
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Shantinikan High School, Warangal, India PROJECT
REPORT
We have decided to do the project on March 20th (Sunday). There are totally 20 students participating in the project, we have divided them into 4 groups. To know about the technical aspects of the project children spent an hour after the school hours from March 15 onwards. By 11’o clock on the day of equinox, all the teams were ready with their measuring sticks in the ground. They measured the length of the shadow from 11:45 to 12:30 for every 10 minutes. They recorded shortest shadow at 12:20 PM (i.e, the local noon at Warangal). Then we sat down for calculating circumference. Using trigonometry they fond the angle of the sun, which equaled the angle at the center of the earth. The distance between warangal and equator was found to be 1998 KM, so 1998 * 20 (20 sectors) gave us the circumference. We invited the Director of the planetarium and press to our school. The Director was with us till we calculated the circumference. He felt happy and thanked us for making him learn about Eratosthenes. All the local news papers and TV channels covered this news. We had lots of fun.
  Warangal, Andhrapradesh, India Latitude : 18 n Longitude : 79.38.12 e Information about the school: Grade level : 8, 9 The name of our school is shanti niketan high school.located at warangal in state of andhrapradesh in india. Warangal is a historical city,the capital of kakatiyas. In 11th century ad. (visited by marco polo ). We have great masterpiece of architecture like thousand pillars temple, fort, ramappa temple etc. Our school is one of the reputed schools in warangal with a strength of 1200. Apart from studies we learn classical dance (kuchipudu), music (carnatic vocal), karate etc. We have done a science fair recently in our school, it is exciting to do this live project now. There are nearly 50 students participating in this project. They have been divided into 10 teams,they have already gone for a mock measurement, and they are busy writing the project report. Top I.I.S.S. "G La Pira" Pozzallo, Italy Final Report This is Rocco G. Maltese sending pictures of stuff by means my students and I have performed meridian location and shadow measurements at I.I.S.S. "G La Pira" - Pozzallo (Italy) from 15 through 22nd of march.
A picture is concerned with sextant determination of maximum height of the sun at noon to compare with our stuff. I wish you all the best Rocco g. Maltese School Name: I.I.S.S: "G. La Pira" Naut. School School Location: Via E. Giunta - 97016 POZZALLO (RG) - Italy Email Address : rg.maltese@aliceposta.it Experimenter : Rocco G. Maltese Suject Area: Physics Latitude: 36 44 51 N Longitude: 14 53 00 E Distance from Equator : 4068.0 km Measured shadow angle in degrees : 35.52 Calculated Earth Circumference : 41223.098 km _____ During the month of February my students and I have performed shadow measuremnts with a shadow plot to fix the exact position of the meridian for the noon passage. We have posted some pictures too in the gallery of all our stuff used: shadow plot and meter stick. One day we have also ask to our students attending higher navigation class to perform a measurement of the upper passage of the sun to check the hour of the passage and the position of the meridian line. We get a confortable accord with the our previous measurements with shadow plot. We got seven measurements from 15/03 to 22/03, and have taken the mean value of the shadow angles and the circunference values in such a way to obtain a relative percentual error of 3.3%. This isn't a good one results but it is very important all the work that our pupils have done in these days. We looking forward to share our experiece measuments procedures with few of you. All the best from Rocco and his students. Top Chesney Elementary School, Duluth, Georgia Project Report
From: Chesney Elementary/5th Grade FOCUS E-mail: Sonja_Fox@gwinnett.k12.ga.us Date: Wednesday, 4 May 2005 11:43:38 Subject: Final Report Hi, this is the 5th grade gifted class at Charles Brant Chesney Elementary. We got involved in this project after we read the book The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, by Kathryn Lasky, which really inspired us to conduct Eratosthenes experiment for determining the circumference of Earth ourselves. Then we heard about the Noon Day Project and our teacher signed us up. We collected the materials we would need whcih included meter sticks, protractors, tape measures, butcher paper, a plumb bob borrowed from one student's uncle, and pencils. We decided we needed to first find out the latitiude and longitude of our city, Duluth, Georgia, so we used the Internet and discovered our latitude is 33.9775 N and longitude 84.14955 W. We discussed our experiment step-by-step and practiced using our materials and measuring angles in the classroom. We also talked about how the direct rays of the sun strike Earth and how objects on Earth cast shadows that create different angles depending on the location. We figured out that using another meter stick to create the angle from the top of the meter stick to the ground was not going to work, because the meter stick wasn't long enough, so we decided to use a measuring tape which was 150cm long to visually make the hypontenuse formed by the meter stick and the measuring tape. On Friday, March 18, we took our first measurements. One team decided to anchor their measuring device, the meter stick, with clay. Another team tried using an empty toilet paper roll filled with marbles to keep their meter stick vertical. We researched the time of 'true noon' in Duluth for March 18, which was 12:43 p.m. We went outside 30 minutes before true noon to begin taking measurements of the Sun's angle. First we set up the butcher paper, which we were using to make sure we could see the shadow well,on the sidewalk behind our school. Since the wind was strong, we had to set rocks on the corners of the paper. Second we stood the meter stick up. Some teams just used one person to hold the stick steady, but it was not an easy task. We shared the plumb bob to check that our meter sticks were at true vertical. The Sun cast a good shadow as we tried to take measurements every two minutes. We continued for 30 minutes after true noon. Our teams had slightly different measurements. The weather that next week was rainy, cloudy and stormy. We were worried that we would not get a second chance to measure the Sun's angle, but Wednesday the weather finally cleared. We invited our parents to come to school on Thursday, March 24 to help us make a second set of measurements. It was a clear, sunny day with less wind. They were a big help, because we needed an extra person on each team to help hold the meter stick or to make sure we were making accurate measurements. Our teams' measurements were closer to each other the second day. Our Sun's angle measurements averaged 34.605 degress. We chose Sekolah Alam School in Jakarta Indonesia for our partner city. We were excited that they had chosen us. We wanted to see how close our two results would be. The sun's angle at Jakarta was 7.970 degrees. Now that we had the angle of both cities, we would have to find the distance between Jakarta and Duluth in miles, kilometers and we also found the difference in degrees of Latitude between our cities by adding the degrees of Latitude from Duluth to the Equator, 33.9775 and 6.1333 which was 40.1108. When we used the formula for finding circumference,using the distance in miles and kilometers between our two cities, we came up with answers that did not seem accurate. We had trouble using the trigonometry formula. Our teacher did some research and then shared with our class a piece of information that makes the whole process of finding the circumference so much easier. She told us that every single degree on Earth has about the value of 111 miles. When we subtracted Jakarta's sun angle from our sun angle, it was about 28 degrees. We multiplied 28 by 111 which was which was 3,108 miles. After that, as a circle is made up of 360 degrees, and the circumference of Earth is a circle, we divided 360 by 28. The quotient was 12.85 rounded to the nearest hundredth. Twelve and eighty-five hundredths is how many sections of 3,108 miles that make up the total distance around Earth. We multiplied 3,108 by 12.85 to get the circumference 39,937.8 miles. This made us cheer, because we felt this was more accurate than any of our other measurements. We tried using the Sun's angle measurement from Conners Emerson School in Bar Harbor Maine also, but we think our results weren't accurate, because we took measurements on different days. Next year, we will take arrange to take measurements on the same day as our partner cities. We think everyone should know the number of miles (111) in a degree of latitiude, because it was a lot easier to calculate the circumference of Earth without this information. The whole experience was fun and we learned a lot. 5TH Grade FOCUS Charles Brant Chesney Elementary Top |
Final Report
Francisco Morales High School
Naranjito, Puerto Rico
Latitude: 18:18:18 N
Longitude: 66:14:42 W
Class name: Sigma
Grade: 12th grade, Physics
Sun angle: 18º
Earth circumference: 40, 209.2 km
Francisco Morales High School
Naranjito, Puerto Rico
Latitude: 18:18:18 N
Longitude: 66:14:42 W
Class name: Sigma
Grade: 12th grade, Physics
Sun angle: 18º
Earth circumference: 40, 209.2 km
This
was the first time that our school participates on a collaborative
Internet project. We choose the Noon Day Project because it was
interesting and have many applications in the Physics class we are
taking. By calculating the Earth’s circumference, we can apply the math
used in Physics. Seven groups composed by five students each worked on
this project.
We made many activities along the project to complete the Earth’s circumference calculation. In the first one, we had to find out why the measures have to be near on either March 21 or September 21. We learned that near these days is the equinox, because both, the day and the night last the same. The next activity we work out was to know who Eratosthenes was. Knowing who he was is important because he was the first person who measured the Earth’s circumference. Then, we had to find out the latitude and longitude of our city (Naranjito). We also looked for the Earth’s circumference by the existence data. The third activity was to design a model so we could obtain our own measures. Our device was wood stands were we attach a meter stick and a protractor. Our parents help to build this device.
<>We met at our school on March 21 to measure the shadow and the angle using the model we designed. We started measuring at 11: 50 a.m. and finished at 1:00 p.m. The angle was calculate using trigonometric functions (we calculate the tangent of the angle using the measures of the triangle made by the meter stick and its shadow). The angle measured was 18° and we subtracted it from the angle measure at Conners Emerson Middle School located at Bar Harbor, Maine USA, which was 44°. We choose this school because they made the measurements the same day we made them. This calculation represents the central angle between Bar Harbor and our city. After having the central angle, we found the distance between Naranjito and Bar Harbor using the site Surface Distance between Two Points of Latitude and Longitude (http://www.wcrl.ars.usda. gov/cec/java/lat-long.htm) created by John A. Byers in 1997 (Chemical Ecology). This distance is 2897 km. With both, the central angle and the distance, we calculated the Earth’s circumference. With this data, we calculated the percent error. The central angle we got was 26º and the circumference result in 40,209.2 km. This represents a percent error of 0.33%.
The relevant aspects that made possible the good results we obtained in this project were that we designed a good model and took the right measures at the right time. Thanks to this, we got really good measures, so the percent error was small. If we have the opportunity to work on this project again, we would do it the same way because the method we used was adequate.
We learned a lot working on this project, especially how Eratosthenes measured the Earth’s circumference using the length of the shadow. We used the same method as him with instruments we built. In addition, we ended up with our own results of the Earth’s circumference. We hope that future classes in our school continue working on this project because they can learn more about this topic as we have.
We made many activities along the project to complete the Earth’s circumference calculation. In the first one, we had to find out why the measures have to be near on either March 21 or September 21. We learned that near these days is the equinox, because both, the day and the night last the same. The next activity we work out was to know who Eratosthenes was. Knowing who he was is important because he was the first person who measured the Earth’s circumference. Then, we had to find out the latitude and longitude of our city (Naranjito). We also looked for the Earth’s circumference by the existence data. The third activity was to design a model so we could obtain our own measures. Our device was wood stands were we attach a meter stick and a protractor. Our parents help to build this device.
<>We met at our school on March 21 to measure the shadow and the angle using the model we designed. We started measuring at 11: 50 a.m. and finished at 1:00 p.m. The angle was calculate using trigonometric functions (we calculate the tangent of the angle using the measures of the triangle made by the meter stick and its shadow). The angle measured was 18° and we subtracted it from the angle measure at Conners Emerson Middle School located at Bar Harbor, Maine USA, which was 44°. We choose this school because they made the measurements the same day we made them. This calculation represents the central angle between Bar Harbor and our city. After having the central angle, we found the distance between Naranjito and Bar Harbor using the site Surface Distance between Two Points of Latitude and Longitude (http://www.wcrl.ars.usda. gov/cec/java/lat-long.htm) created by John A. Byers in 1997 (Chemical Ecology). This distance is 2897 km. With both, the central angle and the distance, we calculated the Earth’s circumference. With this data, we calculated the percent error. The central angle we got was 26º and the circumference result in 40,209.2 km. This represents a percent error of 0.33%.
The relevant aspects that made possible the good results we obtained in this project were that we designed a good model and took the right measures at the right time. Thanks to this, we got really good measures, so the percent error was small. If we have the opportunity to work on this project again, we would do it the same way because the method we used was adequate.
We learned a lot working on this project, especially how Eratosthenes measured the Earth’s circumference using the length of the shadow. We used the same method as him with instruments we built. In addition, we ended up with our own results of the Earth’s circumference. We hope that future classes in our school continue working on this project because they can learn more about this topic as we have.
We
would like to thank Mr. Ihor Charischak for creating a wonderful
project that engaged us in collaborative work. We also thank the
students and teacher (Winnie) from Conners Emerson School geometry
class for sharing their measurements with us. It was a great experience.
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