Visualize It Using a GIF

Strategy Share: Visualizing it!
One of the things that people mentioned to me when I told them that I was going to Iceland was that it is a great place to see the Northern Lights. While that is true, the ability to see the Northern Lights is very much dependent upon the seasons. Being located along the Arctic Circle comes with its own set of challenges, one of which being that in the summer they have nearly round the clock sunlight.  One of the ways that I use to help share this concept with students is through the making of animated GIFs.  Formulab has a great tool that allows you to see different parts of the earth at different times to  see the relative light coverage. Students can lace together saved images to create GIFs like the one above. The GIF displayed is centered on Reykjavik on July 12th, 2016 (The beginning day of our voyage).  As can fairly easily be seen, darkness never really covers the island, instead just barely skims the southern edge, meaning that it'll get dark, but not be completely night. Instructions on how to make a similar GIF can be found through the UNO Cartography Lab.