Tech Savvy Teacher Article

Mmmmm… Mmmmm… Moon!

Tech savvy teachers are always in need of some great activities and ideas to liven up their classrooms. Here is a great idea for teaching sixth graders about the phases of the moon. This activity and lesson helps to fulfill Utah’s Core Curriculum for 6th grade Science, Objective 1: Explain patterns of changes in the appearance of the moon as it orbits Earth. For this activity, students will need access to Stellarium and some fantastic cookies. Stellarium is a program that allows viewers to see what the sky looks like at any specific time and place. Stellarium helps to outline the constellations, view planets and moons close up, and explore other aspects of astronomy.
During this lesson, students will use Stellarium to capture screen shots of the different phases of the moon. Beginning at the current date, students will use the search function of Stellarium to find the moon and zoom into a close view. Fast-forwarding through time students will look first find the next full moon. They will then look for each of the other phases of the moon. As each phase is reached, students will return to real time to take a screen shot, as directed by the teacher. As each screen shot is taken, students will make note of the date that phase of the moon. These screen shots will then be arranged into a cycle of the moon with the use of Microsoft Word. Below, screen shots taken in February through March 2009 are shown with the appropriate date and phase of the moon.

February 10, 2009
Full Moon

February 12, 2009

Waning Gibbous

February 15, 2009

Last Quarter

February 19, 2009

Waning Crescent

February 23, 2009

New Moon

February 28, 2009

Waxing Crescent

March 4, 2009

First Quarter

March 8, 2009

Waxing Gibbous

March 11, 2009

Full Moon

Students will also be given the opportunity to apply the knowledge they have gained about the phases of the moon by creating the phases of the moon out of cookies. Each student will be given two cookies. They will then get to eat the cookies into the shapes of the various phases of the moon. Have the students copy the teacher’s demonstration of eating the cookies, stopping each time a new phase of the moon is created. If students did not want to eat the cookies into the various phases, they could follow along with the teacher by cutting the cookies into the phases of the moon. This could also be done using cheese or fruit. The following pictures represent what the cookie eating process will look like at each phase of the moon. (NOTE: Starting at the full moon, students will get the second cookie after the new moon has been created. The new moon is reached when the first cookie is completely devoured.)

Full Moon

Waning Gibbous

Last Quarter

Waning Crescent

New Moon

Waxing Crescent

First Quarter

Waxing Gibbous

The technology was used to enhance the learning experience by allowing students to observe all the phases of the moon in a short period of time. This also allowed them to stop and examine each individual phase of the moon as it occurred. Through the use of Stellarium, students are capable of determining what the next phase of the moon will look like and the date it will occur. This will allow students to further extend their knowledge by observing the moon on the predicted date and seeing how it actually looks compared to what they predicted with Stellarium.