[David McGrath]

I think constructing a sundial would be a great idea for to do with the children in a class. I had a senior class last year and I think they would really enjoy this.

Firstly, I would introduce the lesson of sundials by imposing a question on the children about above. I would also organise children into groups and hand out different pictures of sundials. The children in their groups would have to make a prediction on what they were used for and how you would go about this. Any other prior knowledge of sundials is elicited from children when discussing.

When the theory and content of sundials is finished, as a class we will select a ground in the school which would be ideal for sundials. In our school, we have a garden space and a flat area in the middle which would be ideal for construction of the sundial. When suitable place is selected, we will then look at what material we will use to construct our sundial so it is durable. We will then consider the best way to start and mark our sundial. We could start at 9am and consider using a line of stones maybe to mark the shadow the sun is creating. As a class, we could set a timer to every hour and come out and check the sundial and again we will follow the lines that the shadow is making. We will consider to do this a number of times during the day and then check our results.

When finished this activity, we could do a summary of what we have learnt and reflect on what we could to better the next time.

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