Sun Dial Video Conference

On Thursday, the fourth grade had the wonderful opportunity of taking part in a video conference about sun dials with five other schools from many different locations across the Unites States and Canada.

The video conference was lead by Dr. Bob Schweikert of Vanderbilt University's Virtual School. Dr. Schweikert taught us many things about sundials. He spoke about their history, the different types and the purpose that they serve. His presentation included interactive diagrams and lots of amazing pictures of various sundials across the world.

After learning about sundials from Dr. Bob we got to be a part of a virtual question and answer group with other students from Maine, New Jersey, Alabama, Wisconsin and Ontario,Canada.

It was so exciting to see other students from many different places and learn from a college professor! We hope to be a part of another video conference soon.

Here are some of the many things took away from our learning experience:

I thought it was interesting that the earth moves slower in the summer than in the winter. Macy
I found out the biggest sundial was in Japan. -Rachel
I was surprised how precise a sundial can get to the minute. -Curtis
I learned that the old sundials weren't like the ones we use in our gardens today. -Cameron
The Egyptians used big sundials to tell time. -Graem
I thought it was interesting that there have been millions of sundials over thousands of years. -Abby
I learned that there are a lot of differnt types of sundials. -Sydney
It was terrific because we could see other kids at other schools. -Brennan
I learned that sundials can come in different shapes and sizes. -Nathan
I learned that decoration sundials for gardens are not accurate because they aren't set up for the correct longitude and latitude. -Jacob
I thought it was cool that McDonald's has their own sundial. -Koben
I learned that sundials can change by the type of weather. -Lauren
I thought it was cool that we were all learning the exact same thing at the same time, but in different locations. -Ethan
I thought it was pretty cool how an eclipse would only last a few minutes and wouldn't effect a sundial. -Nate
I thought it was cool when he was saying that there was a sundial back in 1000B.C. -Micheal
I thought it was cool how tall the sundials could be. -Jordan