A skill that can be a challenge for all students (GT kids no exception) is determining elapsed time. Our third grade class has been working on this all year in a fun and scientific way. On Mondays, the kids log on to DateAndTime.com and find the sunrise and sunset for that particular day. We then record it in a chart and post it to their graph. We compute the length of sunlight for that day. I must admit that even though I have lived on Earth for 30++ years now, and I knew that we lose sunlight until Christmas and then gain it back, it has been fascinating to me to gather the actual data on this change. Even more fun, it has been wonderful to hear my scientists/mathematicians discuss trends and make predictions and then watch to see if their predictions come true (they had no concept of the equinox before it happened!) Let me just say, elapsed time is no trouble for them now at all. At some point this year for each of them, the calculation of hours and minutes of sunlight became second nature. Here are some of the things they had to say about our observations: During winter, the day is shorter. Also during summer the days are longer. Last, we gain or lose twenty minutes or less of sunlight each week. - Mitchell
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10/2/2017 04:18:53 am
Hi,
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May 2018
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