Third Grade Astronomy Earth/Sun/Moon

1. Third Grade AstronomyEarth/Sun/Moon John Heffernan, Ronen Plesser, and Kitty Rutherford Lead Teacher Development Institute June 27, 2006

2. Session Goals • Explore activities for the Earth/Sun/Moon( ESM) 3rd Grade science goal using materials from TRACS Investigating Objects in the Sky (IOBS) kit and an online ESM Unit • Learn inquiry process and additional content of the ESM Unit to help teach additional activities to enhance the IOBS kit, with more active recording and modeling of the observable patterns in our sky. • Share ideas for integrating science notebooking, literacy, technology and math

3. Doing Science and the Scientific Method Five Science Misconceptions: • There is one scientific method. • Inquiry is only when the student generates the question. • The process is what’s important not the content. • Inquiry based instruction is the only method to teach science. • Using kits and hands-on materials makes inquiry teaching easy. From http://science-education.nih.gov/supplements/nih6/Inquiry/guide/info_process-b.htm#features

4. Inquiry Problem-based Learning Cycle

5. National Science Content Standards • Science as Inquiry: • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry • Understandings about Scientific inquiry 2. Science & Technology: • Abilities of technological design • Understandings about science and technology

6. National Science Content Standards 3. History and Nature of Science: • Science as a human endeavor 4. Unifying Concepts and Processes • Systems, order, and organization • Evidence, models, and explanation • Constancy, change, and measurement • Form and function

7. National Science Education Content Standards and Benchmarks • Objects in the Sky have patterns of movement. The Sun, for example, appears to move across the sky in the same way everyday, but its path changes slowly over the seasons. The moon moves across the sky on a daily basis much like the Sun. • The Sun, Moon and stars all have properties, locations and movements that can be observed and described. • The observable shape of the Moon changes from day to day in a cycle that lasts about a month. • The patterns of the stars stay the same although they appear to move across the sky nightly. • The Earth is one of several planets that orbit the Sun and the Moon orbits the Earth.

8. NC Standard Course of StudyStandards • Competency Goal 3: The learner will make observations and use appropriate technology to build an understanding of the earth/moon/sun system. • Objectives 3.01 Observe that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object and is reflected and/or absorbed. • 3.02 Observe that objects in the sky have patterns of movement including: • Sun. • Moon. • Stars. • 3.03 Using shadows, follow and record the apparent movement of the sun in the sky during the day. • 3.04 Use appropriate tools to make observations of the moon. • 3.05 Observe and record the change in the apparent shape of the moon from day to day over several months and describe the pattern of changes. • 3.06 Observe that patterns of stars in the sky stay the same, although they appear to move across the sky nightly.

9. Astro Unit Lesson Sequence • Sun Moves in the Sky • Light and Shadows Part 1 & 2 • Pinhole Viewers • Changes in Shadows • Day and Night on a Spinning Plate • Earth is Round • Day and Night on a Spinning Globe • Tilting the Globe • Seasons and the Orbit • Phases of the Moon • Dance of the Earth and the Moon • Eclipses • The Full Dance

10. TRACS Unit Lesson Sequence • Sky Wilderness • Moon Watching • Changes in Shadows • Star Gazing • Star Guides • Moon Movies • Patterns in the Sky • Movement in the Sky…Why? • Other objects in the Sky • Confusion in Sky Wilderness

11. Fundamental Elements our Astro Inquiry Lessons • Teamwork & Partnership • Science Notebooks • Motivation/Challenge: Pre & Post Assessment • Observable Phenomena • Sequential Learning • Year-long Project Learning • Developing the ability to compare and integrate appearance of same phenomenon from different points of view

12. Day 1: Three Lessons: • Day and Night on a Spinning Plate • Earth is Round • Day and Night on a Spinning Globe

13. Day and Night on a Spinning Plate • Follows lessons on Sun’s apparent motion in the sky and on the properties of light, including a study of the properties (shape, size) of shadows. • Use a rotating plate with tees attached to integrate these into an understanding of how the orientation of the Earth can create the conditions observed throughout a day: morning, noon, evening, night. • This is the students’ first experience with a view from off Earth.

14. By rotating the plate, students manage to cause the tee’s shadow to reproduce the behavior of their shadows over the course of a day on Earth. • Challenge: what would a person in the tee’s position see – integrate with previous activities. • Challenge: Our shadows do not vanish at noon (they never do). How to modify plate’s motion to reproduce this – tilt.

15. Earth is Round • Actual experience differs from the rotating plate because Earth is round. • Modeling Earth with a styrofoam ball, study the effect of Earth’s curvature on our experience. • Emphasize points of view: the classroom models outer space.

16. On a round Earth, up is a different direction at different locations. • As Earth rotates, the part of space visible at a given location changes. • Once more, classroom is outer space looking down on Earth • Challenge: find the part of space always visible from some location, and the part of space never visible.

17. Day and Night on a Spinning Globe • Integrate previous activities to understand how a rotating round Earth explains the alternations of day and night we observe. • Investigate the apparent motion of objects in the sky at various latitudes • Why do we use time zones?

18. As a round Earth turns to the East, objects in space appear to rotate around us from East to West. • The axis of apparent rotation is the Earth’s axis. This is vertical at the poles, horizontal at the equator, and tilted in between. • The part of the sky always visible includes circumpolar stars.

19. Review Day 1 • How does tilting and rotating effect a shadow’s size and shape? • If you are standing on the Earth where is up and down? • Where on the world is sunset, sunrise, noon and midnight?

20. National Standards vs. Traditional Teaching Methods • The Five-minute University offers a proposal based on what students retain from traditional teaching

21. Day 2: Changing Emphases: Less: • Treating everyone alike & only responding to the whole group • Only focus on student acquiring info • Assess only facts learned More • Responding to individual students’ strengths & needs • Focus on student understanding • Providing opportunities for discussion and debate

22. 3 Lessons • Seasons and the Orbit • Phases of the Moon • Dance of the Earth and the Moon

23. Seasons and the Orbit • Why do we have the seasons? • Model an Earth orbiting the Sun while rotating about a tilted axis to understand seasonal changes. • Northern and Southern Hemisphere, angles, length of days and shadows • Marking the Change of Season: Solstices and Equinoxes • Distance from the Sun?

24. As the Earth orbits the Sun, the Earth’s tilt causes sunlight to fall differently on Earth at different times of year. • What seasonal changes would you expect at the equator? • Why are the stars we see in summer different from those visible in winter? • Challenge: Earth’s rotation takes less than 24hrs?

25. Phases of the Moon • What causes the changing shape of the Moon in the sky? • Moon is a rocky ball. Why does it shine in the sky at all? • Model the moon with a styrofoam ball; here student’s head models Earth • Describing the phases: New, crescent, waxing, quarter, gibbous, full, waning

26. Moon shines by reflecting sunlight. • As Moon orbits Earth, fraction of visible side of Moon illuminated by Sun varies, causing phases. • Does Earth exhibit phases as seen from Moon? How are these related to Moon phase? • Crescent Moon often shows a faint completion: optical illusion?

27. Dance of the Earth and Moon • Integrate all the motions in Earth/Sun/Moon system in a kinetic exercise • Students play role of Earth and Moon • Explain the missing four minutes

28. Replacing ESM Misconceptions • The Private Universe illustrates misconceptions that survive (or are aided) by instruction