PHASES OF THE MOON

Curricular Concept: Explain the phases of the Moon in terms of the relative positions of the Earth , Sun and Moon.

Grade level: 7th

Tools needed: Moon Journal (flip book is preferable)

Web Resources:

• Power point #7
• Animation
• Brainpop
• Discovery Ed
• NSTA link
• Stuff to do
• Worksheet
• Lunar phase simulator
• Moon calender

Strategy:

• Have students keep a record of the moon for two weeks.
• Have them make drawings of what they see, label the phase and record the time of day and the position of the moon when they observed it.
• Emphasize that students should observe the moon from the same place and time each night and use the same landmark for the observation.
• Students could use newspaper or a calender to determine the current phase of the moon and the time when the moon rises and sets during that phase.

Introduce the concept of phases of moon using the above resources.

Have students to open their moon journals and compare and analyze their observations with the new knowledge they received in the class and let them share their findings with their partners. Then tell them to share with the whole class. After the discussion ask students the following questions-

• What causes the moon's phases?
• How would the moon appear from earth if the moon did not rotate?
• Did their observations change over time? How?
• Compare full moon with New Moon.
• Draw and label the phases of moon.