Science Challenge!!

The content I chose to focus on for this challenge has to do with moon changes and orbits. This is a 6th grade standard;
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.
A: Describe changes in the appearance of the moon during a month.
B: Identify the pattern of change in the moon's appearance.
D: Collect data depicting the phases of the moon.

Approaching this challenge, I decided to utilize the program Stellarium for Mac OS. We can use this program to view the sky any time of day. To see the moon clearly, it is particularly useful to view images of the night sky. A cool thing about this program is that you can essentially fast-forward or rewind to see the moon in the past as well as predictions of it into the future. You can also customize your viewpoint by selecting the country and city that you are looking from...you can even be super specific and enter a particular latitude and longitude. To accurately document moon phases, the students would use the program to look at the moon from the same viewpoint across the virtual space of a month (you could view multiple nights at a time by rewinding or fast-forwarding). I would have the students draw their own versions of what they see as they explore the program. Doing this would provide them with a mobile account of their observations.

Content: Moon changes and orbits; what the different moon phases look like and how to recognize them during the month.

Pedagogy: Students will learn to identify and describe the phases of the moon through exploring and following the moon's cycle throughout the month using Stellarium and illustrate their findings.

Technology: Students will have the opportunity to use the computer program Stellarium to complete this activity.