1. ENGAGE:
   There are several ways to engage students in this activity. You could start by showing Ancient Observatories, which can be streamed from the the Apple Learning Interchange or the South Carolina Educational TV website to show your students how math is important in the study of astromony. This could be followed by the hands-on activity in the Educators Guide. Start the Sundial Challenge web activity with a story. It could take place long long ago when Norbert was at Stonehenge and need to construct a device to tell time. Ask how they might go about measuring time using only the Sun. What about shadows? Squeak, an engaging multimedia authoring environment, will grab the attention of young learners.
2. EXPLORE:
   In the Sundial Challenge, your students should first explore by trying the various buttons to see what happens. There are directions in the book in the activity when they get to the more serious business of taking data and plotting their results. Have them work in groups on the angle challenges if they aren't familiar with the different types of angles. Each member should be contributing ideas. By comparing their ideas, they can check each other and come up with the best answers. Next they can explore the symmetry challenge if you want them to learn about reflection symmetry. The other challenges explore measurement, plotting, analysis, and understanding how sundials work.
3. EXPLAIN:
   To prepare students for an oral presentation, assign as homework the task to write out a presentation of their observations and analysis. Encourage them to accompany their words with pictures they draw. Have your students describe, discuss and explain their data and discuss how they think the sundial works. They should explain what they observe clearly and note any mathematical patterns they see in their data.
4. EXTEND:
   Challenge your students do Measurement Challenge 2 to see how the sundial shadow depends on lattitude. Have them do Analysis Challenge 2 to see how well they can use their measurements to predict directions of shadows at different times. Close this window and follow the link in the Teacher Information area for a list of other extensions. Choose the challenges you have your students do to fit the class time you have available and based on the knowledge level of your students.
5. EVALUATE:
   Have your students evaluate how reliable they believe their data to be and how well they can predict from their measurements. Have your students check the Internet to find more information on sundials. You can download a very interesting simulation of sundials at http://www.shadowspro.com. Your students can use this simulation to explore corrections and evaluate the accuracy of the simple simulation in the Squeak activity. Go to the NASA CONNECT web site to have your students submit their Squeak projects from the challenges. We will post them if they are good examples and give feedback. They can save their Squeak projects using the publish button on the navigator flap.