This first video is called Origins of the Moon. Don’t worry about the big words and the advanced math – this is just showing the same idea as the video from the Museum of Natural History. When Earth was first born, it had no Moon. Then, another planet too close by hit the Earth. The Moon was formed from that explosion. There was nothing living on Earth at the time. We’ve also talked a lot in class about how this could not happen again today because there are no planets that come very close to us.
Why does the Moon look like it changes? This shows some nice footage of the Earth, Moon and Sun together. It makes it easy to see how the Sun’s light makes one side of the Moon look bright. But, sometimes the bright side is facing away from us or only facing towards us a little bit. So, the Moon sometimes looks dark or has a crescent shape.
This calculator will show you what the Moon will look like on any calendar day. The day in the picture is Lisa’s birthday. Click on the picture to try it!
Click on the picture to play the Lunar Cycle Challenge!
The Moon looks different each night because the Earth and Moon are always moving around the Sun. This game will help you to learn about how the Moon’s shape changes every day. What patterns do you notice?
Click here to explore the relationships between the Earth, Sun and Moon.
Questions:
-What is missing from this picture?
-What are the circles around the Sun and the Earth?
-Why does the Sun get to be in the middle?
-What do you think would happen if we took the Earth out?
Things to notice as you play:
-What happens when you go to big places, such as the Sun or Jupiter?
-What happens when you go to small places, like the Moon or Mercury?
-Why is the target floating on some of the planets and on the Sun?
Challenge: Find MORE THAN ONE WAY to hit the target!
The Moon is much smaller than the Earth. Therefore, it pulls less. Watch some footage from the moon landings to see for yourself!
Astronauts on the moon – notice how they get around. Are they walking normally? How much is the Moon’s gravity pulling them?
Dropping a feather and hammer on the moon – This experiment should look familiar. We did something like this in class together. The difference is – no air on the moon, so the feather won’t float. Also notice how much time it takes for both objects to hit the ground.
Throwing a hammer on the moon – Notice how high the hammer goes, and how long it takes for it to come down. What would that look like on Earth?
Did you see the Moon and two very bright objects in the night sky over the past few days? The two dots look like stars, but they are actually planets. Venus and Jupiter are both very close to Earth right now and so you can see them in the night sky along with the Moon.
Cluster B recently began its study of ecosystems. Within each class, a small team of students will be responsible for documenting and presenting information about an ecosystem – the four we’ll focus on the most are forests, oceans, deserts, and the Antarctic.
Our first task was to figure out why these ecosystems have different climates. To do this, we needed to learn about the Earth and how it rotates around the Sun. Here are some of the games we played together.
Explore a model of Earth’s yearly revolution around the Sun:
Here’s another site showing the same idea – this one automatically stops at the dates when the seasons officially “change”.
We also helped everyone’s favorite annoying traveler, Max, visit specific places on Earth during specific seasons:
Finally, this site shows the Earth as it looks right now. You can see where it is day or night, look at a globe or a flat map, and even choose which satellite you’d like to look from.
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