With some random materials found around the science closets at school, students set out to build a physical model to explain the patterns we saw from various simulators and videos--longer days in the summer with a sun higher in the sky, and shorter days in the winter with a sun lower in the sky.

We knew that the Earth turns on its axis and that it points to the North Star.  Measuring the distance from sunrise to sunset on our physical models at various points in the year gave us the following data:

Reflecting upon our data got us thinking that we didn't see a point where there was a long period of daylight (like in June) and a short period of daylight (like in December).  We also didn't see two times where the daylight amount was approximately the same (like at the equinoxes in March and September).

We agreed to revise our models to try and show the patterns we've seen in the sky.

After repositioning the N. Star and leaning the Earth towards the N. Star so we could always see it in our nighttime sky in the northern hemisphere, we started to see data that matched what naturally happens during the solstices and equinoxes in the northern hemisphere.  

With all this data, we're now trying to see how the tilt of the Earth and longer/shorter amounts of daylight affects other patterns on the Earth.  What does the tilt mean for the type of light we experience during each time period of a year?

Recognizing we see patterns with sun ourselves, we also recognized that these patterns haven't just been noticed by us.  They've been occurring for a long time!  We turned to two interviews with different Native American tribes--Navajo Nation and Paiute to see that not only do they see patterns with the Sun, but with another star as well...the North Star!

Both these tribes share a common theme that many students have heard of:  the North Star is directly above us!

So we turned to this idea to begin collecting data on what happens as the Earth is pointed northwards towards the North Star and the amount of daylight changes over the course of a year.  

As a class we agreed on the following things from watching a simulator based on what we see with the Sun:

1.  The sun and moon move across the sky from E to W.
2.  The N. Star is always pointed upwards.
3.  The Sun is higher in the sky in summer months and takes a longer path across sunrise to sunset.
4.  The Sun is lower in the sky in winter months and takes a shorter path across sunrise to sunset. 

We launched our unit right after spring break and it was so neat to see it inspired by an event that was pretty close to Mrs. Brinza's heart.

Moving to Colorado from Chicago, Mrs. Brinza's newsfeed on social media is still connected there.  And on March 20th, right at the start of spring break, there was an event called Chicagohenge, which looked like this!

And with a little digging, an event like this occurs in other places, like in Manhattan, NY in May.

It was so neat to see that at a couple times of a year, the sun sets PERFECTLY in between buildings in each of these locations.  So many people are connected to this event, that it made us realize that not only are we connected to patterns that happen in the sky, but people from other cultures have been for years, too!   We listened to podcasts from various cultures to realize that they're connected to the sky because of patterns they see with the sun, with the moon, with populations of organisms, and even the stars in the nighttime sky.

Students shared out their own connections to the sky and space, coming up with these related phenomena:

We realized that regardless of the event we felt connected to in the sky or the podcast we listened to, there were patterns happening in the sky that we agreed upon.  Check out our first consensus model:

So many questions about all these events surfaced, and we built our Driving Question Board:

From all our questions, we even came up with investigation ideas we could do (can you tell these 8th graders are getting a little "is-it-the-end-of-the-year-icitis?!?!" by some of the silly investigation ideas they came up with!?!?!)

So many great ideas here!  Where do we begin!