Out with the Old, In with the New

It’s the end of the old year, and the beginning of the new year. But what makes a year? And does it matter? And what was that about the end of the world because the Mayan calendar said that? And what calendar is right? Let’s spend a little time on time.

Connect:

• What makes a year? It’s physically defined as one Earth orbit around the sun.  Find out about years and days at http://www.kidport.com/reflib/science/space/Earth.htm#RotationRevolution
• What’s the source of leap year? Find out the science behind that “extra” day at http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/LeapYear.html
• So what’s with the Mayan calendar? http://people.howstuffworks.com/mayan-calendar.htm shows how it works.
• Did you know that the word calendar comes from the word “calare,” which means to proclaim. Find out the meaning of other calendar words and astronomical origins (including Star Wars) at http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/
• Walk through time, virtually. The U.S. Department of Commerce has online exhibits about timekeeping history, clock mechanisms, and even atomic clocks: http://www.time.gov/exhibits.html

Create:

• What is your birthday according to the Persian calendar or the Mayan one – or what is its UNIX value? You can convert any date with this calendar converter: http://www.calendarhome.com/converter/.
• Speaking of which, you can find out about Martian years, and convert Earth time to Martian time (which might make your parents younger), at http://pweb.jps.net/~tgangale/mars/faq.htm
• You can make your own Mayan calendar with tools found at http://www.pauahtun.org/Calendar/tools.html
• Even before clocks and print calendars there were sundials. You can found out how they work, and make your own at http://www.sundials.co.uk/  (This site is also available in Czech, German,  Dutch,  French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hungarian.
• Another way to mark time is through a timeline. You can make a family timeline using http://www.ourtimelines.com/index.shtml

Care:

• Calendar activities are not very meaningful for children younger than six years old. They CAN understand the concepts of before, after, and later. Families can take pictures of the day’s activities, and put them on a calendar as a way to concretize the day’s activities. A good article about calendars and child development is found at http://www.isbe.net/earlychi/pdf/beneke_calendar_time.pdf
• One way to show that you care about others is to remember their special days. You can make a family calendar using tools at www.calendarhome.com/
• Celebrate! Almost every day has special meaning for someone. Locate an event for each day of the year, and figure out a way to celebrate it: http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php
• Care for your body by keeping fit. You can use http://www.bam.gov/sub_physicalactivity/physicalactivity_activitycalendar.html to create a personlized physical activity calendar.
• Calendars often have great pictures. You can recycle them as pictures for your walls or the walls of institutionalized people.

Careers:

What are some careers that link with calendars? Try historians and astronomers as a start.

• http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/careers/Index.htm, http://jobs.lovetoknow.com/Historian_Careers  and http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/career.html give career advice for history lovers. 
• http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/careers.php not only talks about astronomy careers, but also explains the difference between astronomy and astrology.