In this Night Sky Activity, students use a simple indoor Earth-Moon-Sun model to explore and learn about Moon phases and eclipses. Many children (and adults) have misconceptions about what causes the phases of the Moon, and helping them confront those misconceptions with evidence makes this activity pretty enthralling. While it’s pretty easy to see the phases of the Moon in the sky, it’s not possible from our perspective to observe the entire system, which often leads to inaccurate explanations of what’s going on, most commonly that Moon phases are caused by Earth’s shadow. It’s a perfect situation to use a scientific model. Students are challenged to use the model to struggle to figure out, develop understanding of, and explain the phases of the Moon, discuss ideas with others, then adjust their ideas based on evidence from the model. This activity usually includes a lot of big, “aha’s!” as participants encounter evidence while using the model that often contradicts what they previously thought was going on.

This activity is an observation opportunity for students to view the phases of the moon and learn that the juxtoposition of the Earth and moon dictates the appearance of the moon in the sky.

Students learn about the Earth's only natural satellite, the Moon. They discuss the Moon's surface features and human exploration. They also learn about how engineers develop technologies to study and explore the Moon, which also helps us learn more about the Earth.

The goal of the Moon Zoo website is "to provide detailed crater counts for as much of the Moon's surface as possible." On the website, interested parties can help out with this effort by examining images of the moon's surface and providing feedback to be used by the team of researchers in charge of the Moon Zoo project. First-time visitors should click on the "How To Take Part" for a tutorial that will help determine which project they might be best suited for. Visitors who wish to take part in the project will need to register on the website, and that process only takes a few minutes. Moving on, the website has an online forum where users can trade information as well as a blog.

The activity is an observational lesson in the phases of the moon with an attached calendar and video links.

Students are introduced to the futuristic concept of the moon as a place people can inhabit. They brainstorm what people would need to live on the moon and then design a fantastic Moon colony and decide how to power it. Students use the engineering design process, which includes researching various types of energy sources and evaluating which would be best for their moon colonies.

Pair this activity with a moon/space unit to engage students in evaluation and critical thinking about life in space. 

It can be hard to make learning about the night sky student-centered, but that’s what this activity does: students trade and discuss cards, then take charge of finding and pointing out the different objects. When an object is found, the instructor may share some interesting information to feed students’ curiosity, but the primary focus is on students finding, wondering about, and discussing different objects.

During this activity, students try to find and discuss a variety of items during a night hike, such as, “evidence of an amphibian (frog croaks),” puzzlers that they’re challenged to figure out, such as “the fastest thing in the Universe” (light), and items from the night sky, such as “a natural satellite of Earth” (the Moon), or “something bigger than our Sun,” (other stars).

In this lesson students will observe some objects that they see in the daytime sky and discuss reasonings to changes and movement of features in the day and night sky.

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.

SoftChalk lesson geared toward 3rd grade learners on the phases of the moon. Lesson developes student understanding of the relationship between the sun, earth, and the moon, and how together they cause the phenomena of the phases of the moon.

On December 16, 2010, the Zooniverse launched the original Planet Hunters to enlist the public's help to search data from the NASA's Kepler spacecraft for the characteristic drop in light due to an orbiting extrasolar planets (exoplanets) crossing in front of their parent stars. Back then we didn't know what we would find. The project was a gamble on the ability of human pattern recognition to beat machines just occasionally and spot the telltale dip from a transiting planet that was missed by automated routines looking for repeating patterns. It may have been the case that no new planets were discovered and that computers had the job down to a fine art. The gamble paid off. The original Planet Hunters project discovered a bounty of unknown planet candidates and several confirmed planets, resulting from the efforts of nearly 300,000 volunteers worldwide.

This article from Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle provides ideas on how school librarians can work with elementary teachers to teach about the Sun's impact on weather and climate. The author introduces the Standards for the 21st Century Learner, developed by the American Association of School Librarians. The author focuses on Standard 1, which calls for students to inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge through developing and refining questions, investigating answers, seeking divergent perspectives in information, and assessing whether the information found answers the questions posed. The free, online magazine draws its themes from the Seven Essential Principles of Climate Literacy, with each issue focusing on one of the seven principles.

Learn about the Apollo 12 mission and the lightning that struck the Saturn V rocket 37 seconds after launch with the help of students from Sterling Middle School

No matter where you live, there are things to observe in the night sky. In this episode learn how you can become a night sky observer.

This episode of STEM in 30 explores Moon rocks and what they can tell us not only about the Moon but also about our own planet.

STEM in 30 celebrates the 2017 Great American Eclipse live from Liberty, Missouri, in the path of totality, and at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory at the Museum in Washington, DC.

Hear from those involved with the Apollo program, and learn about the science behind getting to the moon. We will also take a look at the plans to head back to the moon in the near future.

In this episode of STEM in 30, learn about why we went to the Moon, what we accomplished, and what's next.