Science Exploration

   For our science activity we will be looking at the phases of the moon throughout a period of time.  We plan to go off the 6th grade standard 1, objective 1b.  We will go over a lesson or series of lessons on the mood and the phases of the moon.  We will then use the program stellarium to look at the the phases.  Then using the program we will have an assignment where the students will be asked to look at the moon phases over a period of time and to draw them as they change.

   The content we plan to focus on is the change in the moon phases over time.  We would like to be able to see the actual change and understand why the moon changes.  Also to understand that the moon is always all there, it is just the light that is shown on the moon.

    The pedagogy will be a series of things including discussion, direct instruction, use of technology, and then moving around and actually looking at the moon to compare with the results one would have.  This is a good fit for the content because somethings will need to be explicitly taught so that the students are ready to carry on with the activity.  I also think it is important that we have chosen to use discussion as the students can collaborate and talk about how they view the different things.

    The technology we have chosen to use is the program known as stellarium.  We are using stellarium because it will allow the students to see the moon without cloud cover.  It makes the moon more accessible to students, especially in months that there is often rain or snow and still allow them to see the process of the moon.  It also helps with allowing the students to use technology and look at the moon when they otherwise could not.