Circle of Illumination Science Education LLC
ORIGINS: Inspiration for the development of Circle of Illumination Science Education dates back to my experience substitute teaching for a week in a 3rd grade class at Loring Elementary School in North Minneapolis in 2016. Because the teacher had to take medical leave on very short notice I was given the opportunity to improvise as long as I was adhering to the 3rd grade standards.
As a geography teacher who had used film extensively in my own teaching at the college-level for over 20 years I was excited to share with the students clips from the film "The Endurance" which documents many aspects of the ill-fated voyage of William Ernest Shackleton and his team in their attempt to reach the South Pole in 1914 and includes original film footage shot by the crew photographer Frank Hurley.
In Shackleton's ad to recruit crew members he described that one of the adverse conditions the crew would encounter would be "months of darkness". This piqued the curiosity of the students in the class: How could you have months during which the sun did not rise? So we spent the next few days making drawings of the Earth on the two solstices and the two equinoxes so that students could see how—in the months around the June/summer solstice - extended periods of darkness occur near the South Pole.
Essential to this visualization was understanding what the "Circle of Illumination" is: it is the boundary between the Earth's illuminated and dark halves. BUT...the Circle of Illumination is always vertical so this, combined with the constant 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth in its revolution around the sun, results in changes in day length over the course of a year that are so extreme in polar regions that long periods of either darkness or light can exist. Hence, the idea for company was conceived!
MISSION: Circle of Illumination Science Education is dedicated to delivering high-quality training and instructional materials in earth and atmospheric science to educators teaching grades 3-8. Through meticulously crafted webinars and in-person workshops teachers will gain proficiency in accessing and integrating data from various government agencies as well as incorporating Earth science with literary and cinematic resources. Additionally, specialized programming on weather and climate studies is in development. See page "Workshop on Weather and Climate Basics" with supplemental book and other programming anticipated to be out by Summer 2024!
NOTE: For those of you who read article Dr. Lilienfeld wrote in Winter 2024 Issue of MSTA's newsletter LINKS about use of the software, the U.S.D.A./N.R.C.S. Web Soil Survey -- and you would like explicit instructions on how to use the software --please contact Dr. Lilienfeld for sequence of screenshots at amy@circleofillumination.com.
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