Science Challenge

Activity: Students will use Stellarium to help them create a chart of the changes in the moon's appearance during a month.

Content:
6th Grade Science
Standard 1: Students will understand that the appearance of the moon changes in a predictable cycle as it orbits Earth, and as Earth rotates on its axis.
Objective 1: Explain patterns of changes in the appearance of the moon as it orbits Earth.
Indicator a: Describe changes in appearance of the moon during a month.

Pedagogy:
Observing, Analyzing Data, Processing data
How it fits Content: Observing- The students will observe the moon to be able to chart its changes.
Analyzing data- The students need to be able to interpret what they are looking at on Stellarium.
Processing data- The students need to process what they learned in order to see the pattern in the changes of the moon’s appearance.

Technology:
Stellarium

How it fits Content: The night sky cannot always be observed and during some times of the year, the moon is not able to be seen at night. Stellarium allows students to be able to see the changes at any time during the day and if the moon is not able to be seen where they are, they can look at the night sky from another location on the Earth. Using this technology also saves time because they can use the program at any time and the program shows them exactly what the moon looks like. It takes out the worrying about forgetting to go out and look for the moon or not being able to see it clearly.

How it fits Pedagogy: To be able to observe, analyze, and process data, then the students need access to data about the changes of the moon. Stellarium is a great tool to do this.