This past Thursday was Groundhog Day. The first Groundhog Day was celebrated on February 2, 1887 at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The idea behind this day is based on German tradition for predicting the length of a winter. The Americanized tradition is that if a groundhog comes out of its burrow and sees its shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. There are famous groundhogs around the country that predict weather. Using a U.S. map, BPY students identified these groundhogs’ states. Elementary school scientists also explored how shadows work by experimenting with light and shadows in the Discovery Room and making connections to nature. They then hypothesized a possible connection between meteorology and shadows. With this knowledge and experience, they made predictions about what Lady Edwina at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange will see on Groundhog Day. The students made a school wide bar graph to depict their collective predictions. It was exciting to compare their educated guesses to the different groundhogs’ predictions!