Phases of the Moon

In Science we have really been enjoying ourselves learning about the phases of the Moon. During the month of April, students have been observing the Moon each night outside their window and recording it's changing appearance, allowing them to see and experience our Moon's 29 day cycle.

Mr. Lee's Moon Rap video has also been a wonderful reference for us in class- check it out HERE.

Check out the Moon Giant website HERE to see tonight's moon phase to help you in filling out your Moon Calendar (homework assignment). You can also look back and look ahead (and see dates of the next Lunar and Solar Eclipses)!!

We have learned that the Moon has phases because it orbits Earth, which causes the portion we see illuminated to change.

The Moon takes about 27 days to orbit Earth, but the lunar phase cycle (from new Moon to new Moon) lasts about 29 days. The Moon spends the extra 2 days "catching up" because Earth travels about 45 million miles around the Sun during the time the Moon completes one orbit around Earth.

As we continue to study the Moon's phases we will complete a Moon Phase Gizmo, make edible "Oreo" Moon cycle models (yum) and compile little flip-booklets to help us learn what each phase is called. In doing this we will also deepen our understanding of several landmark moon phases. These are:

1) New Moon (the first (1)and last (29) day in the cycle
At the New Moon phase the Moon is so close to the Sun in the sky that none of the side facing Earth is illuminated. In other words, the Moon is between Earth and Sun.

2) First Quarter Moon (around Day 8 in the cycle)

ONE QUARTER (the RIGHT quarter that we see) is lit....here, the moon is highest in the sky at sunset, then sets about six hours later.

3) Full Moon (around Day 15- the middle of the 29 day cycle)
On this day, the Moon is behind Earth in space with respect to the Sun. As the Sun sets, the Moon rises with the side that faces Earth fully exposed to sunlight. We are able to see the entire illuminated half of the moon!

4) Last (Third) Quarter Moon (around Day 21) ONE QUARTER (the LEFT quarter that we see) is lit.... (opposite of the First Quarter Moon).

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Other terms students need to be familiar with help to explain other phases that fall between these landmark phases are Waxing, Waning, Crescent and Gibbous.

Waxing means "increasing" in illumination

Waning means "shrinking" in illumination

Crescent means "with concave and convex edges" (where less than half of the moon is illuminated from our perspective... think of a curved pastry or dinner roll)

Gibbous means "humpback" (where more than half of the moon is illuminated from our perspective)

Here are several examples:

Waxing Crescent
(growing/increasing in illumination and less than half illuminated from our perspective on Earth)

 

 

Waxing Gibbous
(growing/increasing in illumination and more than half illuminated from our perspective on Earth)

 

 

 

 Waning Gibbous (shrinking in illumination and more than half illuminated from our perspective on Earth)

 

Waning Crescent
(shrinking in illumination and less than half illuminated from our perspective on Earth)

 

 

STUDY TIP: Notice that with Waxing phases the illumination is always on the RIGHT and with Waning phases the illumination is always on the LEFT.

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You can click HERE to see a simple, quick time-lapsed video of the Moon Phase Cycle that really helps to show how all of these phases relate and change throughout the cycle.

Happy Sciencing!!

A Personal Connection....Remembering World War 1

 

What a special treat! Today, Mrs. Tucker (John and Michael's grandmother) visited our two classes to share a very special story about her grandfather (John and Michael's great, great grandfather!!) that we made many important connections to with what we have been studying recently in Social Studies.

Captain Norman Caudwell (Canadian) served in World War 1 in support of Britain and its allies, as Canada was a colony of Great Britain during this time in history. Britain had reached out to many of its colonies and allies to gain support during this terrible war and Captain Caudwell enthusiastically accepted this responsibility. He had been a member of the Army but was accepted into the Royal Naval Air Service as a pilot~ and today we got to see actual entries from his Pilot's Flying Log Book. We learned of his eagerness to serve his Mother Country during a time when many were too reluctant or scared to do so. 

Mrs. Tucker also shared with us some of the literature that was handed out by the British government to try to gain more involvement (see below).

During this war, Captain Caudwell survived a bullet injury to his right arm~ we even got to see part of the bullet that was extracted from his injured arm that he and his family has saved all of these years.

Mrs. Tucker had a very captive audience as she shared, from the heart, her pride in all that her great grandfather accomplished. The many artifacts (primary sources) that she brought to share with us (numerous newspaper clippings, photographs, actual Buckingham Palace memorandums from King George V, dog tag, pilot log, etc.) really brought this historical event to life for the students-  made it REAL for the students. This is an experience we will all remember for a very long time and we truly appreciate Mrs. Tucker's willingness to share her personal story with all of us!



Penny Jars and Cube Towers

Our Math Workshop emphasis in recent weeks has been centered around analyzing relationships between two quantities in situations of constant change. These situations have started out very concretely, through using actual pennies and linking cubes, and then representing these situations more abstractly with arithmetic expressions.

In the above "penny jar" situation, there is a starting number of 5 pennies in the "jar". Then, 6 pennies are added each "round". The total number of pennies shown is (5 x 6) + 5, or 35 pennies. Students have been challenged to extend patterns such as this one, in order to determine the total number of pennies for any round. If asked to identify the number of pennies in the 20th round, for example, students would determine that there are 20 groups of 6 pennies (20 x 6), and then 5 more (+5) when including the "starting" pennies in the jar: 20 x 6 + 5 = 125. There would be 125 pennies in the jar after 20 rounds of adding 6 pennies each round. The most general arithmetic expression to represent "any" round might be n x 6 + 5, or 6n + 5.

These Investigations (from our Scott Foresman curriculum tool) have provided tables, such as the example shown above, in helping students make sense of (and represent) these situations algebraically.

In the above "double tower" situation, there are two skylights. As new "floors" are added to the double tower, the number of skylights never changes. Students have learned to represent this as "+2". Each time a floor is added, however, the double tower gains 6 new windows. The example above has 2 floors. This would be represented as 6 + 6 + 2, or 2 x 6 + 2. There are a total of 14 windows on this tower. Again, students have learned through active exploration (by actually constructing various towers with linking cube manipulatives as they fill in provided charts) how to represent this situation with a general arithmetic expression: n x 6 + 2 (6n + 2). How many windows would be on the 100th floor of this tower? To solve, students would simply calculate 100 x 6 + 2. A 100 floor double tower would have 602 windows.


Upcoming investigations will include building, analyzing, and representing Corner Towers & Square Towers. Students will be challenged to represent these situations of constant change by creating an arithmetic expression using a variable so that the number of windows on ANY given floor can quickly be determined.

Happy Mathematizing,