Shifting Skies: Why Does a Shadow Change During the Day?
Sim Lesson
Students use the Shifting Skies simulation to drag the sun across the sky and watch a stick's shadow change length and direction through the day. Lesson Purpose Students are learning that daily sky patterns come from Earth's rotation. Watching the shadow shorten toward midday and flip direction from morning to evening builds that pattern.
On a sunny day, a flagpole's shadow is long in the morning, short at midday, and long again in the evening, and it points different ways. Why does a shadow change during the day? In this lesson, you will use the Shifting Skies simulation to move the sun across the sky and watch how a stick's shadow changes.
Topics and standards: Science, Solar System, Earth Science, Astronomy, Simulation, Earth in Space, Orbital Patterns, Universe & Stars, Grades 3-5, 5-ESS1-2, Earth Systems, 5-ESS1-2, 5-ESS1-3, SC.4.E.5.3, 3.3.5.B