moon phase reflections

When I began planning this lesson, I first looked at the state standards to choose a standard that may be confusing to students. I selected the Missouri state standard UN2Bf which states “Students will be able to describe how the appearance of the moon that can be seen from earth changes approximately every 28 days in an observable pattern” (Show-me Standards Science, 2008). I thought this would be a good standard for an inquiry lesson because it allows students the opportunity to actively see the phases of the moon.
I then considered ways to teach the phases of the moon. I selected instructional strategies that would embrace several different learning styles. My instructional strategies included journaling, cooperative groups, simulation, classroom discussion and nonlinguistic representation.
The engagement part of this lesson began by having the students journal the moon’s appearance for a week. The class then discussed what they saw and answered two questions.
1) Why does the moon appear to change from night to night?
2) What did the moon look like last night?
The class then discussed the answers to these questions, giving the teacher an opportunity to make sure the students were thinking correctly about the moon before the exploration portion of the lesson.

The exploration part of this lesson involved having students work in cooperative groups to reenact the phases of the moon. The students were put into groups of three and each person was the sun, the moon or the earth. Each “earth” stood in the center of the circle while the “sun” stood outside the circle. The “moon” held a ball that is half black and half yellow, moving around the circle while keeping the yellow side of the ball toward the sun and stopping at different points so the earth could see how the moon looked. The earth participants then drew what they saw on their worksheet. The students then rotated positions until all had experienced each position.
This activity was a good opportunity for the students to see the moon phases. I believe it helped the students understand what is being seen from earth at each phase. It also helped the students understand what order the moon phases are in. The students were able to discuss the moon phases correctly after having completed this activity.
The explanation part of this lesson had two parts. First, the students discussed with the teacher what they had done in the activity and the teacher gave the students the terms for the moon phases. Secondly, the students completed a worksheet, filling in the phase names and writing an explanation for what is seen in each phase. This gave the teacher the chance to hear the students’ thinking and gave the auditory learners the opportunity to hear the terms.
The evaluation part of the lesson was completed in pairs. Each pair of students were given eight sandwich cookies, which they opened and then scraped the icing to match each of the moon phases. The teacher went to each group asking inquiry questions to ensure that understanding had taken place. The students then answered lab questions and colored their diagrams to match the moon phases which they then turned in.
Overall the students met my expectations for this lesson. By the time the cookie part of the lesson occurred, the students were able to tell me the difference between waxing and waning, as well as gibbous and crescent. The students followed my directions and completed their lab sheets accurately.

References

Hammerman, E. L. (2006). Becoming a better science teacher: 8 steps to high quality instruction and student achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Healthy Temple. (2008). The Lunar Diet. Retrieved on April 1, 2010 from
http://www.healthy-temple.com/wp-content/uploads/moon-phases-3x3-lbl.jpg

Malloy, Kelley. (2009). Phases of the Moon. Retrieved on April 1, 2010 from
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/16285635/Phases-of-the-moon

Show-me Standards Science. (2008). Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education. Retrieved on November 2, 2009 from
http://dese.mo.gov/standards/science.html

Wang, Jun. (2010). Moon Phases Oreo Lab. Retrieved on April 1, 2010 from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25217094/Moon-Phases--Oreo-Lab