The Sun Temperature Project (Survey Based Project)

Rukmini Devi Public School, India

(Global Sun Temperature Collaborative Project)

Final Report

This is the fourth time we have participated in this project. This project gave us an opportunity to learn the concept in an interesting way.

The Earth's daily weather and climate is controlled by the balance between the amount of sunlight received by the Earth (both its surface and atmosphere) and the amount of energy emitted by the Earth into space.

 The Earth moves in two ways:

 1. It rotates on its axis, resulting in turning toward and away from the Sun, causing the cycle of night and day every 24 hours.
 2. It revolves around the Sun in the shape of an ellipse (not a perfect circle). Strangely enough, during summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth is actually at the portion of the ellipse that is farther away from the Sun than the portion of the ellipse it travels around during the winter months.

The Earth is tilted on its axis so that the North Pole doesn't really face directly upward. Instead, it points toward Polaris, or the North Star. No matter how the Earth is rotating or revolving, that tilt remains approximately the same all year long. This tilt, combined with the revolution of the Earth around the Sun, is what causes different areas of the Earth to receive more or less direct sunlight throughout the year. The time of year when the Northern Hemisphere receives the most direct sunlight is summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The time of year when the Northern Hemisphere receives the least direct sunlight is winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to the light being more spread out during winter months, the Earth's angle also causes the Sun's light to travel through more atmosphere. Atmosphere blocks some of the light and disperses the remaining light further.

We noted the observations in our school premises. The observations were noted systematically and step-by-step record was maintained. We were not familiar with some of the interesting facts about latitude and longitude. It was really interesting to know about them and conduction of survey was a real fun.

Our hypothesis was that “Countries near to the equator get more sunlight and have high temperature”. After analyzing the data and by plotting graphs we came to the conclusion that our hypothesis is correct.

The following 16 schools are taken for comparison

Date Submitted	School	Class	City	State/ Province	Country	Latitude      (N or S)	Longitude   (W or E)	Average Minutes of Sunlight	Average Temperature (OC)
10/27/2014	Swift Creek Elementary	Smith Homeroom	Whitakers	North Carolina	USA	36.11	-77.71	664	21
10/27/2014	Glen Rock Middle School	1st  Period	Glen Rock	NJ	USA	40.96	-74.13	649	12
10/27/2014	Glen Rock Middle School	4th Period	Glen Rock	NJ	USA	40.96	-74.13	649	12
10/27/2014	Glen Rock Middle School	5th Period	Glen Rock	NJ	USA	40.96	-74.13	649	12
10/27/2014	Glen Rock Middle School	8th Period	Glen Rock	NJ	USA	40.96	-74.13	649	12
10/27/2014	Glen Rock Middle School	9th Period	Glen Rock	NJ	USA	40.96	-74.13	649	12
10/27/2014	Bayard Elementary	Braves	Bayard	New Mexico	United States	32.80	-108.13	677	23
10/27/2014	Hesperia Middle School	6th hour	Hesperia	Michigan	USA	43.57	-86.40	643	12
10/27/2014	Hesperia Middle School	1st hour	Hesperia	Michigan	USA	43.57	-86.40	643	12
10/27/2014	Hesperia Middle School	5th hour	Hesperia	Michigan	USA	43.57	-86.40	643	11
11/2/2014	Oldfielld Middle School	Earth Science Period 2	Greenlawn	New York	United States	40.86	-73.37	652	13
11/2/2014	Oldfielld Middle School	Earth Science Period 4	Greenlawn	New York	United States	40.86	-73.37	652	14
11/2/2014	Oldfield Middle School	Period 1	Greenlawn	New York	United States	40.86	-73.37	652	14
11/2/2014	Oldfield Middle School	Period 3	Greenlawn	New York	United States	40.86	-73.37	652	13
11/2/2014	H.W. Mountz	5M	Spring Lake	NJ	USA	40.15	-74.28	659	15
11/4/2014	Rukmini Devi Public School	8	Delhi	Delhi	India	28.42	77.80	679	33

Comparative analysis of 16 schools w.r.t. Average Daylight and Latitude

Comparative analysis of 16 schools w.r.t. Average Temperature and Latitude

Comparative analysis of 16 schools w.r.t. Temperature and Latitude

From the graph of Daylight vs. Latitude and Average Temperature vs. Latitude , we observed that countries with lower latitudes receive more sunlight & thus have higher temperature than those with higher latitudes.

It was an interesting experience while working on the Global Sun Temperature Project. We certainly look forward to work on it in future.

                                   

Thanks

Global Sun Temperature Collaborative Project Group

                  Observation of the Project taken at 12:00 noon