It's About Time!

It’s New Year: time to think about time. How do we keep track of it? Does it really fly – or does it seem to stop at times? And is it really all relative?

CONNECT:

• What is the history of time? Walk through time at http://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time/index.cfm
• Father Time is often pictured as the old year passes. Discover the story of Old Father Time at http://www.novareinna.com/festive/oft.html
• Clocks with hands are usually analog; others are digital (such as a numbers on a LED screen). Here’s a video about analog and digital: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfyAen-bJS8
• Now bend your mind around the idea of time being relative: http://trendingsideways.com/index.php/the-theory-of-relativity-for-kids/

CREATE:

• Before there were clocks there were sundials. Find out how they work, and make your own: http://www.sundials.co.uk/
• If you’ve seen New Year’s celebrations on TV, you probably know that the new year arrives earlier in Australian than in Hawaii. Why is that? Find out at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=widWLhIIbzs.  You can calculate the time difference between two cities using http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
• You can build a clock that runs on potatoes! Follow these videos to make your own: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Potato-Clock
• A year is calculated on the basis of one complete orbit around the sun. So your age would be different on other planets.  http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/ will calculate your birthday on other worlds (maybe a nice idea for parents).

CARE:

• Here are tips for better time management; you can try them out as a family: http://www.parents.com/kids/responsibility/time-management/
• Teach kids how to tell time using this interactive simulation: http://www.timemonsters.com/ or video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrxZWNu72WI
• Teaching games? Need a stopwatch or countdown? Use this website: http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/
• It can be hard to live without a watch. You can donate old clocks and watches for other children to repurpose. Check it out at http://prestwickhouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/donate-old-watches-for-great-cause.html

CAREERS:

Many jobs depend on time: food and hospitality, transportation, medicine, education, sports – think of some others.  Some jobs have time as their central concern: watch makers, jewelers, astronomers and geologist (who have a different sense of time). Find out the details at:

• http://jimsmuse.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/watchmaker/
• http://jimsmuse.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/geologist/
• http://www.noao.edu/education/being-an-astronomer.php
• You might even work at the home of Greenwich Mean Time: http://www.rmg.co.uk/about/history/royal-observatory/