🌞 My shadow through the day: the whole packet

🌞 My shadow through the day · kindergarten · 3 days of testing · free · 15 minutes a sitting

My days, if the fair is 14 days away

Count back from your fair day and write in each date. Fewer days than this? The jobs share days, in this order; nothing is skipped.

Dates from my teacher

• My question is due
• Testing starts
• My results table and graph are due
• My board is due

In this packet

1. 🗓️ My project plan
2. 💭 My hypothesis
3. 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
4. 🪜 My steps
5. 📊 My results
6. 📓 My logbook
7. ✅ My conclusion
8. ✂️ Board titles to cut out
9. 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate

If I change the time of day, then how many heel-to-toe steps long my shadow is will ________________, because _____________________________________________

What I think will happen, in my own words:

3 levels × 3 tries at each = 9 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.

What I need

• 🖍️ Sidewalk chalk
• 🖍️ Crayons or markers
• 📄 Paper

Be safe: 😎 Never look at the sun · 🌳 Outside

1. Draw a chalk X on a sunny path, and stand on it with your back to the sun.
2. Never look at the sun. Look down at your shadow on the ground.
3. Your grown-up marks the top of your shadow's head with chalk.
4. Walk heel to toe from the X to the mark, counting every step.
5. Do it in the morning, at lunchtime and in the afternoon.
6. Do the same on two more sunny days.
7. Colour a box for every step. When was your shadow longest?

Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.

I changed: Time   I measured: how many heel-to-toe steps long my shadow is (steps)

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: time along the bottom, steps up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

Write something every day you work on it, even the days you only gather things. More days? The three-page logbook prints from peabody.kids/science-fair/templates/logbook.

My hypothesis was ☐ right ☐ partly right ☐ not right.

I know because my numbers show:

What surprised me, or what might have gone wrong (7th and up):

Next time I would test:

Idea: Change a second thing: measure the shadow of a stick standing in a flower pot at the same three times, and compare it with yours.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: when is my shadow longest: morning, lunch or afternoon?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing the time of day would change how many heel-to-toe steps long my shadow is, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed the time of day (Morning, Lunchtime, Afternoon) and measured how many heel-to-toe steps long my shadow is in steps.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept standing on the same chalk mark and facing the same way the same, so only the time of day was different.
5. How many times did you test it? Say something like: 3 times at each of my 3 levels, and I found the middle number.
6. What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: Morning and Afternoon gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
7. Was your hypothesis right? How do you know? Say something like: My numbers show whether I was right, partly right or not, and I can show you where.
8. Did anything go wrong, or surprise you? Say something like: One try was odd, so I did it again and wrote it in my logbook.
9. If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: measure the shadow of a stick standing in a flower pot at the same three times, and compare it with yours.