On the Clock

Elapsed time often frustrates students. It's a concept that consumes a great deal of patience along with the time needed to comprehend it. Quite often, it’s difficult for youngsters to connect the passage of time with the numbers orbiting the face of an analog clock. Why not help pupils get acclimated to exploring and explaining the passage of time through the artful use of technology? Need some examples?

Jesson Yip, a London based freelance digital designer who specializes in web, interaction and visualization, has created a simple, yet elegant way to help temporal novices grasp the concept of telling time. Take a few moments to see his creation, Analogy.


Telling time is an essential skill so it's important to help students learn how. Don't give pupils the cold shoulder when it comes to chronicling chronology. Show them Pixelbreaker's Polar Clock instead.


Essential questions related to this topic:

• When did time begin?
• Will time ever stop?
• Does time work the same way everywhere in the universe?
• Is it possible to slow down, speed up, or stop time?
• What's the most reliable way to measure the passage of time?
  
• If there are atomic particles that are responsible for energy and matter, are there particles responsible for time? If so, how would/could we prove it?

Related resources:

• Still hungry for elapsed time? Have some seconds at Shodor Interactive's spiffy elapsed time resources.
  
• Thumbs up to Yugo Nakamura's nifty Handclock.
• From time to time you may drop the ball but what about hours, minutes, and moments? See it happen with Drop Clock.
  
• For a longer view of where the hours go, look at this timeline.
  

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