My Science Homework

Thank you to all the students and parents who sent lunar eclipse photos last night!  I was able to incorporate them all into today’s slides for class and it was a fantastic way for students to see the full extent of the eclipse…well, at least the first half of it before clouds moved in around 9:15 and prevented us from […]

Tonight is the big night for the lunar eclipse!  The next one won’t come around until December of 2010.  The only wild card is the weather.  Clouds are already streaming into southern Kansas in advance of tomorrow’s storm, but we can hope they hold off just long enough to allow viewing of the eclipse.  The […]

Today’s focus was two-fold:  discuss and preview upcoming important astronomical events and to complete construction of the phases of the moon flip book.
We started by looking at some images of the space station as it passed overhead on Friday.  Several students reported seeing it high in the sky on Friday at the scheduled time (6:48pm) […]

After completing our notes on the Phases of the Moon yesterday, today students analyzed not only the names and descriptions of each phase, but also their position in the Earth-Moon-Sun system during each phase.  Questions we tackled included “what phase would be visible high in the sky at midnight (full)” and “Which phase would be […]

What causes the Phases of the Moon? That was today’s big question. We began by naming the 8 phases of the moon:

New Moon
Waxing crescent
First quarter
Waxing gibbous
Full moon
Waning gibbous
Last quarter
Waning crescent

…and finally back to the new moon. We also demonstrated the phases in class with a large group demonstration utilizing a soccer ball […]

The focus for today’s class was how the moon affects life on Earth.  To many, the moon’s role in life on Earth is perceived as relatively trivial, but after closer examination, it is recognized that the moon is actually critical for life on Earth.  From regulating tides to generating light at night, to stabilizing the […]

After completing the astronomy test yesterday, a lighter lesson was in store for today. Students watched the first half of a film about the moon. The film, titled “If We Had No Moon” is a Discovery Channel production. Today’s portion of the video focused on the current scientifically-accepted theory of the moon’s […]

Today students completed the test over the Astronomy unit. Tomorrow we will begin transitioning toward the Earth, but first we have to go through the moon. We will begin by discussing the formation of the moon.
Any students who missed today’s test are reminded that they must make it up within the week.
Homework: […]

The Sun Song was the lesson for today.  The song by They Might Be Giants chronicles a great deal of scientific information about the sun and it is virtually all accurate - a great way to get a handle on some of the important information about our star.  Students were able to read the lyrics […]

Students continued working on their model of the sun in class today after we briefly discussed the three surface features of the sun:  Sunspots, Solar Flares, and Prominences.  The definitions of each were chronicled in our notes and each should appear on the student-constructed sun models.  See the Sun Model scorecard for more information.  Remember […]