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

MOON PATTERNS

OBJECTIVE: ANALYZE , DESCRIBE, AND PREDICT PATTERNS IN THE CHANGING PHASES OF THE MOON.

Time Needed: One or two periods

Materials: Pictures of the changing phases of the moon for thirty consecutive days.

Procedure:

1. Hand out the pictures of the changing phases of the moon.
2. Elicit previous knowledge that students might have about the moon: Write the facts on the board.
3. Ask students to find the pattern in the changing areas of light and dark on the moon.
4. Ask students to describe the pattern. Write their descriptions on the chalkboard using their own words.
5. Introduce the vocabulary: new moon, first quarter, third quarter, full moon, crescent, gibbous, waxing, waning.
6. Ask students to write the description of the changing shapes of the moon in their journals using the new vocabulary.
Write the dates of the four main phases of the moon on the board:
a. Third Quarter: September 4
b. New: September 11
c. First Quarter: September 19
d. Full Moon (Harvest Moon): September 26
7. Have students label each of the main phases with the date of that phase.
8. Ask students to fill in the dates of the waning and waxing crescent and gibbous phases in between.
9. Ask students to predict the date of the third quarter after the Harvest Moon.
10. Ask students to write a rhyme or mnemonic device that will help them remember that the waxing moon is seen on the right and the waning moon is seen on the left.


Questions:

1. State the difference between
a. waxing and waning
b. crescent moon and gibbous moon
c. full moon and new moon
d. 1st quarter and 3rd quarter
2. Show the difference in drawings.

3. How can we tell if a crescent moon is waxing or waning?

NYS Science Standards for Lesson Plan 3

Standard 1 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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