Teacher's Practice Packet #2: Discovering Longitude Clues

Teacher's Practice Packet #2
Discovering Longitude Clues
Packet #1 | Packet #2

During the spring Mystery Class season, as the spring equinox approaches, students will begin to explore information that will help them estimate where Mystery Classes are located east and west of the Prime Meridian.

Using longitude clues that focus on sunrise times in Universal Time, students "do the math" to estimate longitude degrees for each Mystery Class. Through this hunt for longitude locations, students gain a greater understanding about the Earth’s daily and seasonal cycles.

Teacher Practice Packet#2 includes background information that will help you understand the science and math behind longitude clues, student worksheets that give step-by-step instructions for working with longitude clues, sample worksheets to use for reference, and the map used for plotting the east/west locations of Mystery Classes. With the information and worksheets you will be able to:

Build your understanding about how students discover information about the Earth’s daily and seasonal cycles when they are tracking down the east/west longitude locations of Mystery Classes.
Practice the math calculations students will do to estimate longitudes of Mystery Classes.
Examine the data to find connections and make predictions.
Reflect on questions and prepare for teaching using the Mystery Class journal.

Packet #2
An 11-page printer-friendly packet.

The Essential Question:
On the spring equinox, how does sunlight data reveal clues about the longitude of the Mystery Class locations?