Earth and Moon
Day and night, seasons, Moon phases, eclipses and tides, explained by three bodies in motion.
Grades 4-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops
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What students will see and do
Students watch Earth spin and tilt, fly to the Moon to see where it came from and why it has phases, return to Earth for tides, line up the Sun for eclipses, and stand on the Moon to feel its gravity.
Learning objectives
- Explain day and night with Earth's rotation
- Explain the seasons with Earth's tilt, not its distance from the Sun
- Model the Moon's phases and explain why eclipses do not happen every month
- Describe how the Moon causes tides
NGSS connections
| MS-ESS1-1 | Develop and use a model of the Earth-Sun-Moon system to describe lunar phases, eclipses and seasons. |
|---|---|
| 5-ESS1-2 | Patterns of daily changes in shadows, day and night, and seasonal appearance of the Moon and stars. |
| MS-ESS1-2 | Gravity of the Moon and Sun produces tides and holds the system together. |
| DCI ESS1.B | Earth and the Solar System. |
Stops on this journey
- A spinning planet
- Why we have seasons (discussion stop)
- Where the Moon came from
- Phases of the Moon (discussion stop)
- Tides
- Eclipses (discussion stop)
- Walking on the Moon
- The Moon is moving away
Vocabulary
- rotation
- revolution
- axis
- tilt
- equinox
- solstice
- phase
- eclipse
- tide