RESULTS OF OUR STUDY

Our hypothesis was that the closer the location is to the equator, the hotter temperature should be and the more hours of sunlight the location should get because the equator gets more direct light from the sun.

We looked at data from our location and other locations in the Southern Hemisphere: San Martin de Tours in Buenos Aires; Gold Creek School in Canberra, Australia; and Lysterfield Primary School in Melbourne, Australia. Our hypothesis was only partially correct. In the Southern Hemisphere, the closer the location is to the equator the more sunlight the location gets. The farther the location is away from the equator, the less sunlight the location gets. But, the temperature is not necessarily lower.

For the Northern Hemisphere, we looked at data from schools that we corresponded with as well as schools that were increasingly farther away from the equator. We noticed that the farther you move away from the equator in the Northern Hemisphere, you get more sunlight but not necessarily higher temperatures.

The Northern Hemisphere is moving into summer and the Southern Hemisphere is moving into winter. So, locations in the Southern Hemisphere receive less sunlight than locations in the Northern Hemisphere. The rotation of the earth on it's axis affects hours of sunlight that a location receives.

We were really surprised to find out that just because a location has more sunlight, it doesn't guarantee higher temperatures. We had a lot of fun doing this project. Thank-you to all schools that read our Letter of Introduction and that corresponded with us!!

E-mail: caylai@yahoo.com