About this Daily Classroom Special WinterWeb is
an interactive site using the cold of winter as the focus of
interdisciplinary activities. WinterWeb was written by Lottie
Simms,
teacher at Lawton
Chiles Middle School,
in Miami, Florida and former Teachers Network web mentor.
Activity
3
Visiting the Arctic
Circle
or
Why does a compass
point north?
The Arctic Circle is the invisible circle of latitude on the earth's
surface at 66°33' north, marking the southern limit of the area
where the sun does not rise on the winter solstice or set on the
summer solstice - a geographic ring crowning the globe. It is
approximately 1,650 miles from the North Pole. Scientists say the
Arctic Circle "wanders".
The Arctic Circle is also the outermost parallel circle counted
from the North Pole where we cannot see the sun rise over the horizon
in the winter solstice. This phenomenon is called polarnight, or
midwinter darkness, and occurs around December 21. Continuous day or
night ranges from one day at the Arctic Circle to six months at the
North Pole.
Objective:
The students will explore the "Cosmic
Quest" to the Magnetic North Pole.
Familiarize
the students with the area of the globe known as the Arctic
Circle by having them locate it on the large wall map.
Discuss the type
of climate in the North Pole and the reasons for its low
temperatures. Have the students compare the climate of the Arctic
Circle with that of Antarctica (Activity 1).
Distribute copies
of the readiness
reading activity
and have students read silently or read aloud to answer the
basic questions at the bottom of the reading
passage.
