http://www.microsoft.com/education/investigatingdaylight.mspx

At the above website, you will find a lesson plan for students from middle to high school, for use in either math or science classrooms. The objectives of the lesson are:

•	Students will collect real data of sunrise and sunset times for their hometown.
•	Students will look for a pattern in the amount of daylight over a year.
•	Students will write explanations for the daylight pattern they observe.
•	Students will view an online demonstration to illustrate why the amount of daylight varies during the year.

Resources included in the lesson plan are:

- Word documents with student directions
- Excel templates and samples
- link to sunrise and sunset data for the area in which you are located
- link to an online demonstration for seasons and daylight
- link to data about Daylight Saving Time

In this lesson, students will collect and chart sunrise and sunset data for their hometown for a period of one year (data is retrieved from an online database kept by the Navy). They will create graphs showing the amount of daylight throughout the year and note patterns. Questions they will explore include:

•	What is the pattern for the amount of daylight during the course of a year for your hometown?
•	Why do some days have more daylight than others?
•	What roles do the earth and sun play in determining the amount of daylight?
•	What is the daylight pattern for the North Pole?
•	What is the daylight pattern for the South Pole?
•	What is the daylight pattern for a location near the equator?

Other websites are provided for the students to gather information about the above questions, as well, so that they can compare their findings with scientific evidence about the subject.

Extension activities and assessment suggestions are included for the instructor's use.