Sun & Shadows

Area grade school students working on ACASE’s Sun & Shadows Assessment Activity

What is Sun & Shadows?

Sun & Shadows is an assessment activity involving a sequence of student-led observations of sun position and the casting of shadows over the course of the school year. Students are challenged to apply their knowledge and skills in order to:

  • make careful observations,
  • turn these observations into rigorous predictions,
  • organize and justify their predictions, and
  • consider properties of the Sun to explain the phenomenon of shadow cast.

Who is Sun & Shadows for?

Sun & Shadows is a challenging task for graduating high school seniors and engages 6th graders at all ability levels, too. It provides motivation and foundational knowledge related to core scientific concepts and skills.

Where did Sun & Shadows come from?

Sun & Shadows came into being through the collaboration of Rebekah Rice, an upstate New York technology teacher, architect and permaculture specialist, and Jennifer Burgin, science teacher at Diamond Middle School in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Documents related to board construction and Activity administration:

Lining up for the Sun & Shadows activity