Hello Martina, Setting aside the matter of Educational Authorities who cannot think (!), I also agree that you might like to give this another go in order to allow the Authority to think again. There is another type of dial you might try on them – one that can also be painted on the ground and where the person standing on it casts the shadow in a similar way to an analemmatic dial. This is the human nodus horizontal dial where the dial is a conventional (though large) horizontal dial and the person stands on the noon line at a point on a scale of heights such that the top of their head is at the same height as a real gnomon would be. These are strangely rare (at least in the UK) with only a few known. John Moir’s one at Poplar in London is a recent example and it’s hard to see how any thinking person could object to something like this for children. Not only that but its operation is much easier to explain and to compare with conventional horizontal dials and also of course, given the solar time it can be used to determine the child’s height – something which they find fun. If you are interested there is an image of John’s really excellent dial in Aberfeldy Millennium Green, Poplar, London E14 at this URL: http://www.ppowers.com/poplar.htm Patrick
-----Original Message----- From: Martina Addiscott <martina.addisc...@gmail.com> To: sundial <sundial@uni-koeln.de> Sent: Fri, Apr 22, 2011 8:33 am Subject: Are there any commercially-available 'Teaching Sundials', for schools ? Is anyone aware of a commercially-available large 'Teaching Sundial', which would be suitable for fulfilling that part of the UK National Curriculum ? As many of you no doubt know, sundials are included in the Science section of that curriculum, but each school decides for themselves how to cover it. We had originally intended to mark an interactive "analemmatic" dial on to the playground - but our local Educational Authority will not give us their permission for that, because of the 'health and safety' implications (as basically they feel that such layouts are too dangerous for the children). It had also been suggested to us that a large globe-of-the-world might be a good way to cover the necessary aspects (Latitude/Longitude, daily rotation of the earth, night/day, annual change of seasons, etc) - but we feel that there has to be something better and more 'sundial-specific', if only we can trace suppliers of any suitable item being sold at a reasonable price. Len Honey at "Science Replicas" suggested an individual portable dial, for each pupil - but (apart from the cost), we think that those would soon get damaged (or simply 'go missing'). Instead, if this is possible, we would prefer one large 'demonstration' sundial - ideally in wood or plastic (not metal, as that would be expensive, plus too heavy for a teacher to hold). Though Mr Honey offered to have something specially designed/manufactured for volume sales to schools, it is likely to take some time to implement. Hence my plea to this Mailing List - asking if there are any 'commercial Teaching Sundials' already on the market, and if so, can anyone point me towards the supplier of them. We have a budget of 500 Pounds, for this. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
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