IN THE CLASSROOM:

Fifth-graders at Fremont Elementary School tracked the sun on Wednesday with the help of some tools in a science kit.

Students in Valerie Jordan’s class spent the morning at the school’s playground where they used a compass and golf tee to measure the length of the sun’s rays.

“The length of the rays differ from season to season,” said 10-year-old Lital Ganon.

“When the Earth turns around the sun is when the sun’s rays change at different angles.

Lital and her teammates placed the golf tee on a piece of paper with a semi-circle drawn in the center, and used a compass to help them find north and measure the golf tee’s shadow.

The shorter the shadow, the hotter the day, Lital said, adding that if the shadow is longer in length, then the temperature is colder. At about 11:20 a.m., the golf tee cast a shorter shadow compared with the shadow it cast at 3 p.m. the day before.

Students have been tracking the sun in the fall, winter and autumn. They will continue in the spring and summer.

“The Earth revolves around the sun, and every season the sun changes position,” Lital said.

Tobell Yarijanian, 10, placed his compass on the ground on the paper and waited for the dial to indicate the length of the golf tee’s shadow.

He drew a straight line where the shadow was cast and wrote the measurement next to it.

“The Earth is at a different angle of the sun at every season,” Tobell said. “The sun [ray] is shorter in the summer.”

The study of the seasons, climate and solar system is part of the fifth-grade science standard curriculum, Jordan said.

Working hands-on with tools repeatedly helps students better understand the lessons, she added.

“They are learning to come up with good questions and learning to use science vocabulary,” Jordan said.

“It’s repeated exposure.”

When students finish tracking the sun, they will graph their results and compare the differences in the length of the shadows for every season.

For some of the students, including 11-year-old Amanda Khan, the science project is a way to be engaged in their learning.

“I’m not a fan of science, but being out here, this makes it fun,” Amanda said.