The Sun Temperature 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)
10/26/2015	West Fork Middle School	8A	Rockwell	Iowa	USA	42.98	-93.19	637	14
10/27/2015	Glen Rock Middle School	602	Brooklyn	NY	USA	40.6	-73.9	655	19
10/30/2015	Foothills Middle School	Period 2 Science	Wenatchee	WA	USA	47.42	-120.31	612	13
10/30/2015	Foothills Middle School	Period 3 Science	Wenatchee	WA	USA	47.42	-120.31	612	13
11/2/2015	Foothills Middle School	FMScience@104 5th	Wenatchee	Washington	USA	47.44	-120.34	611	16
11/2/2015	Foothills Middle School	FMScience@104 7th	Wenatchee	Washington	USA	47.44	-120.34	611	17
11/3/2015	Joyce Kilmer	Period 5	Milltown	NJ	Union	40.45	-74.43	636	16
11/4/2015	Wyoming Seminary Lower School	Science 7 Bell 4	Forty Fort	PA	USA	41.28	-75.87	636	12
11/4/2015	South Callaway Elementary	Smart\'s Homeroom	Mokane	Missouri	United States	38.4	-91.52	700	14
11/5/2015	Pioneer	Knipfer Period 3	Wenatchee	WA	United States	47.25	-120.19	612	12
11/5/2015	Pioneer	Knipfer Period 4	Wenatchee	WA	United States	47.25	-120.19	612	17
11/5/2015	Pioneer Middle School	Simmons Period 3	Wenatchee	Washington	United States	47.25	-120.19	612	15
11/5/2015	Hawken School	Hawken 6th Grade	Lyndhurst	Ohio	USA	41.5	-81.5	634	12
11/5/2015	Pioneer Middle School	Simmons Period 6	Wenatchee	Washington	United States	47.25	-120.19	612	15
11/12/2015	Sea Girt Elementary	6 Technology	Sea Girt	NJ	Monmouth	40.13	-74.34	640	13
11/15/2015	Rukmini Devi Public School	Class 8	Delhi	Delhi	India	28.42	77.8	669	29

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

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

The complete report can be viewed by using the link:  

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6Pex_3K5_ghRzE1aEJ3RXlnTGc