Google Earth Lessons Blog

One new function of Google Earth that I have been dying for was the ability to control the sunlight as it hit earth to demonstrate to students why we have seasons, longer and shorter days, etc.

Happy days, now you can!

While I am not certain how precise the daytime/nighttime visual data is, it is at least close enough that now you can animate the entire solar year to show all sorts of cool stuff, like why parts of Alaska get 24 hours of sunlight in the summer, and no sunlight in the winter.

Here is a brief, 3 minute, video showing how it works.

A lesson I am putting together for my upper Elementary kids is going to include having them pick locations on Earth (based on Latitude) and have them chart the amount of sunlight the place receives throughout the year in a Google Docs Spreadsheet. Then they will make line graphs to compare Northern, Southern and Equatorial locations average sunlight during the big solar days (equinoxes and solstices). An extension includes having them collect monthly temperature data (via the iFrame placemark trick to display the World Climate Data website) and charting it along with the daylight data to see if there is any correlation between average temperature and hours of daylight. I’ll post it when I get it all on digital paper.

David