A Human Sundial allows you to become part of the machinery telling the time. It consists of two arcs of numbers set into the ground (British summer and winter time) and a set of months. By standing on the current month your shadow falls onto the time.
For more information see: www.sunclocks.com
Mosaic is the perfect medium to use to create a human sundial. Eye catching, durable and involving a whole school or group in it's creation. It can include extra decorative elements to link to a celebration or locality, and for schools can link to the National Curriculum.
Project requirements:
Level ground, ideally South facing ground - with room for a 6m diameter circle that is free from other shadows at all times.
Materials:
Swimming pool tiles (frost resistant and in a variety of colours), external grade tile cement, grout, concrete paving slabs of various sizes and shapes
Installation:
We will need a sunny day to plot first the North/South line and then East/West, then we plot the numbers and finally the months! The mosaics are on standard concrete paving slabs, laid as any normal slab
Links to the National Curriculum
Mathematics - each sundial is unique and is plotted using a series of calculations, for example the distance between the numbers and the central area are plotted out using an X-Y grid
History - the story of sundials and how different cultures in history measured time
Geography - longitude & latitude & how Earth relates to the Sun
English - the different names for each part of the sundial such as the Gnomon which describes the object or person that creates the shadow
Art & Design - mosaic as a medium, and the sundial itself can be used to express a subject, event or celebration
IT - using computers and the web to work out the calculations and find examples of sun dials across the world
Science - how a sundial works, and other ways of measuring time not involving the sun
Physical Education - you have to place yourself within the sundial for it to work and then you could measure your shadow and see how its length varies throughout the day
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