Parker Moreland has been volunteering at an intermediate school in New Milford, CT, where he has come up with a clever modification of the “What Causes the Seasons” lab in our Earth Science with Computers book. First, instead of taping a temperature sensor to a globe, he opened a cardboard globe and mounted a Surface Temperature Sensor at the school’s latitude from the inside of the globe, letting it protrude just a bit. He also mounted a light sensor (homemade, in his case) inside the globe. He then monitored the temperature change when a heat lamp was placed at the appropriate angle for winter and summer sun. You can also monitor the light level and length of a day as the Earth turns with the sun in the winter and summer positions.