Unit Connections / Concept & Processes & Skills
The Sun, Earth, and Moon create predictable patterns in the solar system.
What patterns does the Earth and moon help create?
What patterns does the Sun and Earth help create?
What patterns do the Sun, Earth, and moon help create? / The Sun is a star that releases huge amounts of light and heat energy.
The Sun is a gigantic ball of extremely hot gases that move and swirl.
The gases at the center, or core, of the Sun are the hottest.
The Sun’s surface has small dark sunspots that are slightly cooler.
The Sun’s heat and light provides energy for the water cycle, warms the Earth, and provides sunlight for plants to grow and produce food.
Earth and moon are rocky and are made up of the same materials, such as iron, aluminum, calcium, and silicon.
Earth’s atmosphere of gases can generate winds from uneven heating, while the moon has no atmosphere or winds.
Earth has water needed for living things, but the moon has no liquid water and no visible forms of life.
The Earth and the moon revolve as a system around the Sun which is kept in orbit by the pull of the Sun’s gravity.
Both the Earth and moon rotate on their axis as they revolve.
Earth rotates daily, while the moon revolves around the Earth and rotates on its axis in 27.3 days.
Misconceptions
- The moon gives off light.
Fact: The moon is a non-luminous body. It can be seen because it reflects the light from the Sun. - Phases of the moon are caused by the Earth’s shadow covering the Moon, clouds, or the Earth’s or Moon’s rotation.
Fact: Phases of the moon are caused by the regular movement of the Moon around the Earth. - Different countries see different phases of the moon on the same day.
Fact: Everyone sees the same phases of the moon. - The moon goes around the Earth in a single day.
Fact: It takes about a month for the Moon to orbit the Earth. - The same half of the moon is in darkness all the time.
Fact: The moon has no side that is constantly dark; the front and back are alternately lit as the moon rotates. - The moon is only visible at night.
Fact: We frequently see the moon in the day; the only phases of the moon that cannot be seen in the day are the full moon and the new moon. - If there is no air there is no gravity. So there is no gravity in space.
Fact: Gravity is a force pulling together all matter, the more matter, the more gravity.
Graphic Cues
Student Outcomes
Describe the characteristics of the Sun.
- What is the sun made from?
- Why does the sun seem brighter and hotter compared to other stars?
- Why does the sun seem larger than other stars?
- What does the sun provide for the earth?
Describe the characteristics of the Moon.
- What kinds of landforms are on the moon?
- Where does the moon receive its light?
- How long does it take weathering or erosion to occur on the moon? Why?
- What is weather like on the moon….?
- Why does the moon revolve around the Earth?
Describe explain how the Earth, Sun, and Moon are responsible for the pattern of the tides.
- What causes tides?
- How many high tides occur each day? Low tides?
- What does the Sun, Earth, and Moon look like during a high tide?
- What happened during a high tide?
- What happens during a low tide?
Compare the similarities and differences of the Sun, Moon, and Earth.
- How does the Sun, Moon, and Earth compare in size?
- Physical features?
- Orbits?
- Gravity?
- Atmosphere?
- Composition?
- What landforms are or are not present of each?
Identify the four major moon phases and predict patterns of change.
- What causes the moon to look different in the night sky?
- What is the origination of moon light?
- What is the length of the moon cycle? Why?
- If I was to go outside and look at the full moon how long would it take for me to be bale to see the full moon again?
Vocabulary Focus
Key Vocabulary for the Week
Gravity
Gravitational pull
New moon
Full moon
1st quarter Moon / 3rd/last quarter moon
Sun spot
Star
Crater
Moon phase
Technology Resources