Over the last 500 years humans have gone from seeing a man in the moon to seeing a man on the moon. This phenomenal advance in collective learning has taken place thanks in large part to a group of strategies which have come to be referred to as The Scientific Method. If humankind has made so much progress by using the Scientific Method, then why not teach all our children to use it at an early age rather than waiting until high school or college to teach a few who are fast-tracked into science and technology careers. If we have made this much progress with a few humans using these strategies, then what will our collective learning curve look like if we are all trained to make science discoveries and/or to appreciate the discoveries of others?

Sunday, October 14, 2007

GRAPHING MOONRISE AND MOONSET

OBJECTIVE: MAKE A GRAPH OF THE TIMES OF MOONRISE/MOONSET FOR SEPTEMBER 18 THROUGH 30.

Time Needed: two to three periods

Materials:
1. graph of the times of moonrise/moonset for September 1 through September 17 (made by the teacher)
2. 1 leaf of 1 cm2 graph paper per student
3. data for moonrise/moonset for 9/1 through 9/17

Procedure:

1. Hand out the completed graph for 9/1 through 9/17.
2. Ask the students to analyze the graph for patterns. How are these patterns similar to or different from the graph that they made for 9/1 through 9/7?
3. Ask students to predict (extrapolate) the data for 9/18, 9/19, and 9/20.
4. Hand out the graph paper.
5. Ask students to work in pairs to complete the graph for 9/18 through 9/30.
6. After they have finished their graph, ask students to match it up to the teacher’s graph so that they can see the full thirty days of September all together.
7. Have students write an analysis of the pattern or patterns they see in the graphs.

NYS Science Standards for Lesson 4

Standard 1
Mathematical Analysis
Key Idea #2 M21a, M21b
Scientific Inquiry
Key Idea #1 S1.1, S1.2, S1.3 S1.4
Key Idea #3 S3.1, S3.2, S3.3
Standard 4 The Physical Setting
Key Idea #1 PS 1.1e-j
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