Using planetary maps, students will be able to read cartographic information and compare the environmental conditions of The Moon to those Earth. They will understand the conditions needed for life to exist, and be able to explain why it cannot exist on The Moon.

Students will explore the relationships and patterns among the Earth, Sun, and Moon system in our solar system. Students will design, build, and test a model of a lunar rover.

The moon goes through several phases based on its position in relation to the sun and Earth. When the moon is between Earth and the sun, none of it is illuminated and it is referred to as a new moon.

Waning refers to the process of the full moon growing darker as the moon revolves around Earth. The animation depicts the last quarter phase, from which it slowly grows darker and disappears until it becomes a new moon, starting the cycle over again.

Students will learn about interactions between objects in the solar system that influence phenomena observed from Earth. This includes both solar and lunar eclipses. They will develop and use a model of the Sun-Earth-Moon system to describe the eclipses of the Sun and Moon. 

A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth is directly between the moon and sun. In a lunar eclipse the Earth casts a shadow on the moon, causing part or all of the moon to darken to an orange-red color.

It takes the moon approximately 28 days to revolve around the sun. The moon has four primary phases: new moon, first quarter phase, full moon, and 3rd quarter phase.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and then sun, causing the sun's light to be totally or partially blocked by the moon, casting a shadow on a portion of Earth.

As Earth rotates, the moon's strong gravitational force pulls toward it water on Earth's surface that is closest to the moon. The portion pulled toward the moon causes a high tide, which simultaneously occurs on the opposite side of Earth.

In this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA, astronaut John Young experiences extreme temperatures on the Moon that are a result of the Moon's low gravity and lack of atmosphere.

Field Trip to the Moon. This is from the American Natural History Museum and it will take your students on a Field Trip to the Moon.

Move the sun, earth, moon and space station to see how it affects their gravitational forces and orbital paths. Visualize the sizes and distances between different heavenly bodies, and turn off gravity to see what would happen without it!

Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.

Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.

In this 30 to 45 minute activity, children (in teams of 4-5) experiment to create craters and learn about the landscape of the moon. The children make observations on how the size and mass, direction, and velocity of the projectile impacts the size and shape of the crater.

Converting a visual experience to a tactile one, this activity lets visually impaired students learn and explore our Moon and its characteristics.

In this Night Sky Activity, students use a simple indoor Earth-Moon-Sun model to explore and learn about Moon phases and eclipses. Many children (and adults) have misconceptions about what causes the phases of the Moon, and helping them confront those misconceptions with evidence makes this activity pretty enthralling. While it’s pretty easy to see the phases of the Moon in the sky, it’s not possible from our perspective to observe the entire system, which often leads to inaccurate explanations of what’s going on, most commonly that Moon phases are caused by Earth’s shadow. It’s a perfect situation to use a scientific model. Students are challenged to use the model to struggle to figure out, develop understanding of, and explain the phases of the Moon, discuss ideas with others, then adjust their ideas based on evidence from the model. This activity usually includes a lot of big, “aha’s!” as participants encounter evidence while using the model that often contradicts what they previously thought was going on.

It can be hard to make learning about the night sky student-centered, but that’s what this activity does: students trade and discuss cards, then take charge of finding and pointing out the different objects. When an object is found, the instructor may share some interesting information to feed students’ curiosity, but the primary focus is on students finding, wondering about, and discussing different objects.

During this activity, students try to find and discuss a variety of items during a night hike, such as, “evidence of an amphibian (frog croaks),” puzzlers that they’re challenged to figure out, such as “the fastest thing in the Universe” (light), and items from the night sky, such as “a natural satellite of Earth” (the Moon), or “something bigger than our Sun,” (other stars).

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.

Explore the celestial objects of our Solar System (planets, comets, spacecrafts, etc...) using this interactive website.