School awaits sundial that will last a century

Students at Stella Maris College in Gżira will no longer have an excuse for being late for lessons. Next week, the world’s largest human sundial will be laid out in their school yard and, just by standing on the meridian line in the middle, they will be able to tell the time by the length of their shadow. The school’s Astronomy Association initially came up with the idea and it was immediately taken up by science teachers, who believe it will help students understand equinox and summer solstices and the movement of the seasons. “Our engineering teachers designed the sundial which is a combination of astronomical and technological,” said Brother David Mizzi, the school director. The seven by four-and-a-half-metre sundial is aligned with the axis of the Earth’s rotation to tell the correct time: as the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-edge aligns with different hour-lines. It will be laid out in the secondary school yard, although Brother David stressed that this will not take up any of their play area. “It is a floor sundial, and the material is hardwearing – so it can take the running around of children on it,” he said. The maker of the sundial – David Grima of Mediterranean...