Lunar Phases Interactive Activities:

Save as “Lunar Phases” on your laptop

Link – Click here

Directions: Type the following answers in red on this document by clicking next to the red question mark. You need to save this lab in Google Docs to be able to add the screenshots to the corresponding boxes.

Activity 1 –

  1. Click on “Activity 1” on the website
  1. Using the track pad on your computer, go to each of the Moons that surround the Earth and fill in the correct amount of illuminated light from the Sun.
  1. Fill in how much of the Earth is illuminated by the Sun at all times.
  1. Click on the right arrow symbol.
  1. If you are correct you will get a message that says, “Good, you identified the shadows correctly.”
  1. Take a screen shot of your picture from your screen. To take a screen shot, click the “control“button and the “toggle” button (which is the button above 6 on your keyboard) at the same time.

Activity 2 –

  1. Click on the words “activity 2”
  1. Look at position (a) of where the moon is. Click on the correct moon phase that represents what the moon would look like from Earth at position “a”.
  1. If you are correct, the computer will tell you. If you are incorrect, you will need to change your answer before continuing on.
  1. Continue steps 2 – 3 for all 8 positions.
  1. Take a screen shot of your picture from your screen. To take a screen shot, click the “control“ button and the “toggle” button (which is the button above 6 on your keyboard) at the same time.
  1. Drag your screen shot into the box below.

Activity 3

Answer the following questions about the moon phases (in red)

  1. How many different moon phases are there?
  1. How many days does a “waxing crescent” moon phase last?
  1. How many days does a quarter moon (doesn’t matter which quarter moon) last?
  1. How many days does it take the moon to make a full revolution?
  1. What kind of moon appears to be getting larger each day - a waxing moonor waning moon?

Using the main screen of the website under “activity 2”: Link – Click hereWrite out the answer for the letter you choose(do not just type the letter).

  1. The phases of the moon are produced by:
  1. At full moon:
  1. At new moon:
  1. At first and third quarter moon phases:
  1. In the first half of the lunar cycle, the “growing” part of the moon appears on the ______side. After the full moon when the moon is waning, the illuminated part of the moon appears on the ______side.
  1. Why doesn’t the moon appear as bright in the daytime as it does at nighttime?
  1. If you can see a full moon at your position on the Earth, what type of moon will you see if you go to exact opposite side of the world on the same day? (24 hours)
  1. If you see two full moons in one month of a calendar year, then the second full moon is called a:
  1. We know that tidal effects occur primarily because the moon is orbiting the Earth. The Earth’s rotation is what causes the effect of two high tides and two low tides per day and at each location. Explain why you’d think there’s a correlation between the time of moonrise and the time of the high tide?