Grade 9 matching shadow and temperature readings with a partner school in Cape Town.

For the last two weeks of January, once South African schools are back from the summer holiday, a Year 10 class and a partner class in Cape Town take the same readings at their own local solar noon, on the school grounds and on the same days: the length of the shadow cast by a one-metre stick and the air temperature in the shade, entered straight into one shared Google Sheet. In the lesson, students calculate the sun's noon altitude from each shadow (the tangent of the angle is one divided by the shadow length), chart both schools' altitudes and temperatures side by side, and explain why, on the same dates, the noon sun stands about 20 degrees above the horizon in southern England and more than 70 degrees in Cape Town. They then compare the fortnight's temperatures with each city's published January averages, to separate this fortnight's weather from the climate. The lesson closes with a class-to-class Teams call hosted by both teachers on school accounts (Cape Town is two hours ahead in January, so the school days overlap), where each class explains its readings and asks how the other took them.

Tools: Google Sheets, Microsoft Teams Nine ideas for your own version in Generate