A year already? - History of STEM practicals - Trig, Angles + Astronomy

Practical 14 in the History in STEM practical series.

With the upcoming equinox, this is the perfect moment to try out this practical. The more indepth version of Measuring the World - Circumference of Circles, this extended practical takes place over 3 months, recording the angle of the shadow at solar noon once a week to determine a host of information, such as the latitude of the city you live in, the tilt of the earth’s axis, confirm dates of solstices and equinoxes as well as calculate the circumference of the Earth. Each weekly measurement takes no more than 5 minutes, and can be done in small groups on rotation.

After the 3 months, graph your data and have a look at the trends to deduce the range of information described above. The end result is a project that covers angles, graphs, and an optional triganometry component for advanced level students. There is even a task that a photography class could tackle to get even more accurate results and add an additional layer of cross-curriculum goodness. Don’t forget each comes with an introduction covering the history of the topic in question, in this instance, calendars.

The file is editable to suit your needs.

More about the History in STEM practical Series

This series is designed to bring quality cross-curricula material to STEM subjects, that help students to explore and discover phenomena normally taught, while getting a glimpse into the history of its development.

In addition, a number of the practicals give the students the opportunity to play “Mythbusters”, looking at a number of different methods and having to reason why one or the other was the more likely or useful method.

From Ancient Greece to Vikings, China to the Golden age of the Muslim empire and beyond to India, the series takes a look at some of the most important STEM achievements throughout history.

There is a plan for 40 of these such practicals in this series, so, if you liked this one, consider looking at some of the others, or check out some of the bundles available.

Copyright © 2020 The Efficient Science Teacher

All rights reserved by author. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.