Title: Moon Phase Lab

Directions: Follow this outline as you work through today’s Lab. Put all BOLDED items in your science notebook. A Sample Science Notebook has been provided for you on your teacher’s webpage.

Problem:

How do the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon cause the monthly pattern of Moon phases?

Hypothesis:

Moon phases are caused by ______

(finish the sentence)

Procedures:

Follow your teacher’s instructions to developing a model of the Sun, Earth, and Moon system and drawing a diagram.

Draw the diagram above in your science notebookto show the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moonfor each of the eight moon phases you learned about during the previous webquest.

  • Draw an Earth(silver dollar size)eight(quarter size) moons around it, to demonstrate the 8 named moon phases. Draw a Sun shining at the rightedge of the page(maybe draw just a half circle as big as half an apple).
  • Use the larger moons to show which side and how much of the moon is lit by the Sun at each phase.
  • Draw a line through each larger moon to indicate what half is facing Earth.

Note: This is (always) a line at 900 to an imaginary line from Earth to the Moon. This line will divide the half we can seefrom the half we can’t and will help you determine what phase the moon is in from an “outer space perspective”.

  • Draw and use 8smaller moons(dime size),one next to each large moon,to shade and show the appearance of the moon,as seen from Earth, at each phase.

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Conclusions:

Answer the following questions about your discoveries in your science notebooks:

(feel free to return to the model if you need to)

  1. In which direction did you move the Moon around the Earth to produce the Moon phases in order—clockwise or counterclockwise? ______What happens if you move the moon in the opposite direction?______
  1. Look at the diagram you drew. How much of the Moon is always illuminated (lit up) by the Sun? ____%
  1. Many students believe that the Moon phases are caused by Earth’s shadow. Return to the model and investigate this hypothesis--remember that you are the Earth.
  1. Make the Moon revolve around you.
  2. Where is your shadow? ______
  3. Record your conclusions. ______
  1. Draw and label a picture, from a birds-eye-view, of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, when the Moon is in either its first or third (last) quarter position—Draw where the shadows of the Earth and Moon would be.

Does your (Earth’s) shadow have anything to do with the phases of the moon we see? ______

Why? ______

  1. Compare and contrast your original ideas (from our “Going Through A Phase” Formative Assessment) about what causes the moon phases to what you discovered in this lab activity. Have your ideas changed? ______How have they changed and why? ______
  1. Thinking back to this week’s WebQuest, how long does it take the Moon to revolve around the Earth? ______
  1. How do the positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon cause the monthly pattern of Moon phases? ______
  1. Label the three circles for how the Sun, Earth, and Moon would be arranged for the two kinds of eclipses shown below.

Solar EclipseLunar Eclipse