Tech Savvy Teacher and a Space Lesson

These days, anyone who is not familiar with computers and other technology sources, is limited as to their ways to communicate with others. To teach in the current classroom setting, as it’s always been, teachers need to teach on the students’ level. With the popular use of video games and other technological forms of entertainment, why not become a ‘Tech Savvy’ teacher, through which one and all students’ attention can be grabbed during the lesson at hand? The following lesson is simple, but utilizes sources of technology to teach students about the following state standard for third grade science:

Standard 1
Students will understand that the shape of Earth and the moon are spherical and that Earth rotates on its axis to produce the appearance of the sun and moon moving through the sky.

Objective 1

Describe the appearance of Earth and the moon.

1. Describe the shape of Earth and the moon as spherical.
2. Explain that the sun is the source of light that lights the moon.
3. List the differences in the physical appearance of Earth and the moon as viewed from space.

To fulfill this objective, it is obvious that to be able to provide good descriptions of the earth and the moon, an external resource would need to be found in order to do so. Looking through the www.uen.org website, I found a website that is quite useful. Looking at steps ‘b’ and ‘c’ of the objective stated above, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one can find a clear visual that describes each one. For example, to explain that the sun is the source of light that lights the moon, a child could see from the first visual below that it is because the moon orbits around the earth as the earth orbits around the sun; whatever light found on the moon is because of it coming between the sun and the earth. To illustrate this even clearer, go to http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/eclipse.html. On this website, this visual is brought to life because it’s a moving visual of the moon and the sunlight that comes in contact with it as it moves past the sun. As the students watch this, they will then be able to describe this process in their own words, having observed and analyzed the seen movements.

The top left picture shows an outsiders view of the earth, moon, and sun, which is a great tool to nourish understanding of the moon’s movement in sync with that of the earth around the sun.

To get an additional visual of how the moon moves on an axis around the earth, the picture below can be seen in movement at http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/fromsun.html.

The above visuals have all helped clarify the movement and appearance moreover for the moon than of the earth, so leading the students to the following link (that brings the below image to life) that shows a view of the earth from the moon would be vital for their full understanding of this objective: http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/frommoon.html. (The green dot represents a city on earth, as is made clear on the video.)

After seeing these videos/visuals, the students will have a pretty clear idea as to the appearance of the earth and moon from space. They will be able to describe the stages of light that both the earth and the moon go through as each day and night passes by. Making these connections and establishing that the moon’s relation is to the earth as the earth’s is to the sun will be what students accomplish in this part of the lesson. Then, another video off of the already-used website that shows the phases of the moon can be found at http://www.fearofphysics.com/SunMoon/phases.html.

To address the remaining part of this objective, we need to talk about the earth and the moon’s shape being spherical. From what they have already seen, students know that both the earth and moon move in round motions as they go through their respective axis’s. To illustrate that they both move in round motions like a sphere, using the computer program “Stellarium” would be at least a bit of an insider’s look to how the sky appears when the earth is passing through a day and night. By fast-forwarding through a day and night on this program, the class will be able to see the sphere-like movement that the earth goes through as it circles the sun. After seeing this, it can be assumed that the moon would move around the earth in the same way. Below is an image taken off of google images, to illustrate the contrast between night and day that can be seen on Stellarium.

Stellarium and FearofPhysics.com both work as great technological tools to help any teacher that’s teaching about space and movement in space. Many children are visual learners, so this would be quite an effective way to presenting this part of Standard One for Third grade science!