Repost - Reflection on the Workshop

Ok so I was looking back through this blog to make sure everything was good and I realized that I misread the comments on the first blog.  I thought that answering the questions comment applied to future blog posts not the first one.  I’m pretty sure I was wrong about that so here is the redone reflection on the workshop blog .

1. Develop a concept map, which outlines the big ideas addressed in this webquest along with the fundamental concepts, which students should have as prior knowledge.

2. What SC standards (science, math, or otherwise) are related to the teachings/activities in the webquest?

There are no South Carolina state standards for high school astronomy but some high school physical science standards apply to this course.

PS-1.1 Generate hypotheses on the basis of credible, accurate, and relevant sources of scientific information.

PS-1.6 Evaluate the results of a controlled scientific investigation in terms of whether they refute or verify the hypothesis.

PS-1.9 Use appropriate safety procedures when conducting investigations.

PS-5.10 Explain how the gravitational force between two objects is affected by the mass of each object and the distance between them.

A large part of the weekend workshop was completing inquiry activities and figuring out the theory behind each activity.  I’ll hit those in more detail later.

3. Using your support documents for these standards, what is essential for students to understand?

The biggest thing that students should understand is that there is a lot more to the Moon than the fact that it’s a big whitish gray circle in the sky.  All the activities we did in the workshop should help them to get that.  One big concept that was covered in the workshop were the fact that the Moon’s main two surface features are the maria (dark spots) and highlands (light regions).  The other concept is that the interior of the Moon can tell us a great deal about the evolution of the Moon, Earth, and the rest of the solar system and that the craters on the Moon are vital in this. 

4. How can the materials/information be used to help students develop their essential understandings?  How can you modify the information or lesson to address the development of these understandings?

I would love to get a Moon beach ball and toss it to my students around the room like we did for the introductory activity in the workshop.  It was a good icebreaker activity but also each person told whether their right thumb landed on lunar maria (dark regions formed by ancient lava flows) or highlands (pretty much anything that is not maria).  The responses were recorded and around one-fifth of the responses were on maria.  Turns out that this was very close to the around 16% of the surface covered by maria.  The following pictures show the near and far side of the Moon and the fact that the highlands cover the majority of the lunar surface. 

Another activity we did was making craters in flour.  We dropped different size marbles into white flour that had a layer of dark cinnamon on top.  These impacts made craters that varied according to projectile size, mass, and angle of impact.  The impacts caused the white flour underneath to be ejected from the crater causing rays in some instances just like the familiar monster crater Tycho on the southern hemisphere of the near side of the Moon.  It showed how objects that impact the Moon can expose the subsurface material.

This activity made a mess (especially when I used the slingshot) but it has so many applications in terms of how craters form, using impacts to gather data on subsurface composition, estimating meteorite size and composition from the crater, estimating age of the surface by looking at number of craters per area, etc.  I think my students would have a great time with it. 

5. What key misconceptions commonly inhibit a clear and accurate understanding of this content?  How should you modify your instruction to address these misconceptions?

A big misconception that students will probably have is that the Moon’s surface is covered roughly evenly by maria and highlands.  This misconception would arise from the fact that when we look at the Moon at night, we only see the near side which has a 50/50 maria/highlands distribution but it is easy to forget that there is a far side of the Moon that we never see from Earth.  The pictures above show that the far side is predominantly highlands. 

The picture of the Moon below is taken from the side.  I remember when I first saw it, I initially thought it was Mercury. 

Basically, any picture of the Moon that is not the near side as we see it looks does not look like the Moon.  It’s something that I’m sure can confuse students as well.  I would probably show this picture well after we cover Earth and are covering Jupiter or Saturn since both of those have heavily cratered moons.  I bet most of the students would think it would be something other than the Moon.

6. What new scientific information did you learn in this lesson?

The main thing I learned in the workshop was that the vast majority of the Moon is highlands.  I have seen pictures of the far side of the Moon before but I never put it together that the dark maria we see on the near side cover much less than half of the surface. 

Also, I have long believed that a blue moon was the second full moon in a month when in fact it is the fourth full moon in one season.  The original misconception was due to an error in an almanac or newspaper back in the 1950s I believe. 

7. What questions do you still have?  (Write at least two and answer them with the resources and links provided.)

I really didn’t have any questions after the workshop.  I felt that I knew more coming in than most other participants in the workshop and I even won a prize for answering the most questions correctly on a pretest.  This is probably due to the fact that astronomy has been a hobby for a long time for me.  I read books, look at websites, and take out my telescope often on clear nights.  Most of the other participants were elementary and middle school teachers so they did not need to know as much about the Moon as I do for my astronomy class. 

8. What new instructional practice did you learn?  Describe how you can use this in the classroom.

The flour crater activity and lunar beach ball activity are the two practices that I will definitely use this coming year in astronomy.  In fact, I’m thinking very seriously about doing the lunar beach ball activity on the first day of school so I can get to know my students.  I think it would be better than the standard form I have my students fill out every year. 

Google Moon is one of the best tools that I have learned in any class.  We will be using it a ton along with Google Mars.

Webquest 4

[Updated: 9:20pm  6/13/11 - three links are at the bottom: lesson plan, webquest, and Telescopes sheet]

1. Develop a concept map, which outlines the big ideas addressed in this webquest along with the fundamental concepts, which students should have as prior knowledge.

This concept map shows how all parts of a webquest are related to each other.  To be able to complete a webquest, the students should have familiarity with the internet, search engines, and how to save and properly cite pictures and references. 

2. What SC standards (science, math, or otherwise) are related to the teachings/activities in the webquest?

Once again there are no South Carolina standards for high school astronomy but the following physical science standards are covered.

PS-7.1 Illustrate ways that the energy of waves is transferred by interaction with matter (including transverse and longitudinal/compressional waves).

PS-7.2 Compare the nature and properties of transverse and longitudinal/compressional mechanical waves.

PS-7.3 Summarize characteristics of waves (including displacement, frequency, period, amplitude, wavelength, and velocity as well as the relationships among these characteristics).

PS-7.5 Summarize the characteristics of the electromagnetic spectrum (including range of wavelengths, frequency, energy, and propagation without a medium).

3. Using your support documents for these standards, what is essential for students to understand?

The big idea that I want students to come away with is the fact that putting a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon is not some way far off in the future mission – it is something that could conceivably be completed in 20 years or so.  The technology of a radio telescope has been around for decades, we have already put people on the Moon, and we are in the process of getting people back to the Moon so all the steps have pretty much been done already. 

The students should be able to understand all of this since waves are covered in physical science and again in astronomy, types of telescopes including radio are discussed in astronomy, and putting men on the Moon is discussed in astronomy as well. 

4. How can the materials/information be used to help students develop their essential understandings?  How can you modify the information or lesson to address the development of these understandings?

I don’t think that I will have my students design a webquest themselves although having them carry out a webquest is a great idea.  Probably my favorite tool in this entire course is Google Moon (and Earth and Mars) and I can see using it for many things in my astronomy class.

I may have the students make up a small scavenger hunt for each other.  They could find a crater or mountain or some feature on the Moon or Mars and give clues as to how to find it using Google Earth.  Other than that though, they would just do webquests that I design.

5. What key misconceptions commonly inhibit a clear and accurate understanding of this content?  How should you modify your instruction to address these misconceptions?

A possible misconception would come up when comparing optical and radio telescopes: Radio telescope does not so much “see” objects as it does “hear” them.  After all, radio waves are used in radios and radios make sound that we hear.  In fact, a radio converts information contained in radio waves (transverse) into sound waves (compressional).  Radio waves are a form of light just like visible light that we see.  It is the same type of wave (transverse) as visible light but the waves are just stretched out a little more.  Our eyes are not able to see radio waves but radio telescopes can just like optical telescopes see visible light.

6. What new scientific information did you learn in this lesson?

I did not know the actual names of the parts of a radio telescope or what exactly each part did.  I knew that it had a dish, an antenna, and equipment to convert the signal into useful information but I did not know the names or functions. 

•         dish – collects radio waves

•         antenna – point where radio waves are focused

•         receiver and detector – electronic devices that interpret the radio signals into useful information

7. What questions do you still have?  (Write at least two and answer them with the resources and links provided.)

One question that I have about webquests in general is what is a reasonable amount of time it should take me to develop a webquest?  The webquest I made for this class took a few hours to put together but I’m sure it would get easier and I would be more efficient if I were to create another one.  I googled the question, “how long does it take to make a webquest” and the result for the website http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/web_quest/ says that it takes 2 minutes with their online template.  I looked at the template and it’s pretty much the same thing I did for this class so it would take much longer than 2 minutes especially if I want to make it worthwhile for student to complete.

8. What new instructional practice did you learn?  Describe how you can use this in the classroom.

I learned how to make a webquest.  As I said above, the biggest obstacle would be the time commitment to make it but I think webquests could be used effectively for some astronomy topics especially those topics that are open ended such as colonization of other planets and extraterrestrial life.  If I have time this summer in between other classes I’m taking and work outside, I may make a webquest or two to use in my astronomy class this coming year.


Do the links below work?  They work for me but I want to make sure that others can use them too.  My lesson plan and webquest should pop up when the appropriate link is clicked.  Also, the Telescopes sheet should be below.

lesson plan
webquest
Telescopes sheet

Webquest 3 Blog...

1. Develop a concept map, which outlines the big ideas addressed in this webquest along with the fundamental concepts, which students should have as prior knowledge.

Rather than a concept map, I’m putting here my answers to the Moon mission design questions in Task 3 of this webquest since pretty much everything else in this webquest is based on these answers. 

1.      Will your mission be manned or robotic?

The mission will be manned since the overall goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon. 

2.      Are you landing on the surface?  If so, where exactly?

The site for the base is at 81^o 37’ 10” S   145^o 49’ 40” W near the south pole where water ice was confirmed by LCROSS.

3.      Why did you choose this landing site?

This site is far enough away from the pole to have a regular day/night cycle but it is very near where LCROSS discovered water ice in a permanently shaded crater.  Since liquid water is obviously required for a permanent human presence on the Moon, the landing site must be near the poles.  It is not in the crater itself because the crater is permanently shaded and solar panels on the base need sunlight to generate electricity.  The site is also in the highlands which have not been explored as much as the mare and it is near ejecta from Cookes crater which can give clues as to the internal composition of the Moon.

4.      What goals do you hope to achieve?

The first goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon as a research station and to foster cooperation between all space faring countries.  Right now the only permanent base outside of Earth is the International Space Station.  Since this will be very expensive, funding will be split among several space agencies.  Overall, this base is a step towards colonizing Mars since the Moon is close enough to Earth that if something were to go wrong, an emergency escape vehicle at the base could get the astronauts back to Earth within a couple days.  This would not be possible on Mars but the Moon base is a good dry run to hash out any unforeseen problems. 

A second goal is to analyze ejecta from the Cookes crater to determine the internal composition of the Moon.  The mission site will be in the highlands which are much less explored than the mare. 

5.      What kinds of instruments will you be using?

As far as scientific equipment, since a main goal of this base is to analyze Moon rocks there will need to be a gas chromatograph along with standard lab equipment such as balances, glassware, sterile environments, etc. 

To establish a permanent base, many of the comforts of home will need to be brought to the Moon.  First thing to bring is materials with which to build a shelter.  This material will need to have special lining to protect against solar radiation since the Moon has no magnetic field or atmosphere to block or absorb it.  Equipment will be needed to process and filter the water ice for use by the humans along with fairly heavy duty rovers and equipment to harvest and transport the water ice from the craters to the base. 

A greenhouse will be necessary to grow food.  And equipment will be needed to dig a small underground space for the astronauts to take refuge during solar flares or other storms that release above normal radiation that the above ground habitat may not be able to block.

6.      Will you need an orbiter to communicate with Earth or as part of your sciene investigation?

The actual landing site is just barely on the near side of the Moon so it will be able to communicate with Earth all the time.  However, an orbiter will be needed to communicate with rovers during excursions to the far side of the Moon. 

7.      If you are conducting a manned mission, how will your astronauts survive on the surface?  Will there be a full base, or just a temporary lander?  What kinds of tasks will they be charged with when they reach the surface? 

Water will be collected from ice in the permanently shaded craters.  At first there will need to be lots of startup food brought with the astronauts until the greenhouse is capable of sustaining them.  Solar panels provide electricity and heat especially since it is very cold at the poles.  There will need to be lots of physical training and exercise while on the Moon because its reduced gravity will have negative effects on inhabitants although they should be in better shape than astronauts on the International Space Station. 

8.      Will your mission involve a return from the Moon?  If so, will it be sample or just the astronauts returning home?  If samples, what will happen to them when they are brought to Earth? 

Just like the International Space Station, the lunar base will have rotating crews that will provide supplies and return samples from the Moon.  There is a real possibility to send tons of Moon rocks back to Earth over the lifetime of this lunar base.  And there is a very long shot that evidence of biological processes could be found in lunar ice. 

2. What SC standards (science, math, or otherwise) are related to the teachings/activities in the webquest?

PS-1.1 Generate hypotheses on the basis of credible, accurate, and relevant sources of scientific information.

PS-1.4 Design a scientific investigation with appropriate methods of control to test a hypothesis (including independent and dependent variables), and evaluate the designs of sample investigations.

PS-1.5 Organize and interpret the data from a controlled scientific investigation by using mathematics (including formulas and dimensional analysis), graphs, models, and/or technology.

PS-1.6 Evaluate the results of a controlled scientific investigation in terms of whether they refute or verify the hypothesis.

PS-1.7 Evaluate a technological design or product on the basis of designated criteria (including cost, time, and materials).

PS-1.8 Compare the processes of scientific investigation and technological design.

All of these physical science standards are relevant to this webquest as they involve planning and designing an experiment and this webquest involves planning a mission to the Moon pretty much from the ground up.  The PS-1 standards in physical science are generally the same for all sciences since these standards are basic scientific investigation.  This webquest would be a great project to do over the course of a week or so or maybe longer as a capstone project for the Moon unit.

3. Using your support documents for these standards, what is essential for students to understand?

This webquest would be a great capstone project for a Moon unit.  They must understand important aspects of the Moon including what we know and what we don’t know.  What we know is helpful in planning the mission and being able to design the mission so the astronauts (lunarnauts?) can survive.  For example, the students must know that there is water on the Moon but only at the poles so that’s where the permanent manned mission must be.  However, sunlight is weak at the poles so the solar panels used for power must be large and angled the right way (not just “up”).  Also, it is very cold at the poles so a great deal of power generated must be used for heating.  The Moon has no magnetic field or atmosphere so harmful solar wind particles and radiation are a very real threat to lunar colonists.  Appropriate equipment must be brought to protect the colonists over long periods of time. 

What we don’t know and want to figure out is important so that meaningful science can be accomplished.  It would be a shame for the lunar colonists to land in an area that we already know a great deal about.  I’m sure it would be interesting nonetheless but if we are going to put a permanent presence on the Moon, we might as well go to a location that we know little about other than the fact that it’s a safe place to be. 

4. How can the materials/information be used to help students develop their essential understandings?  How can you modify the information or lesson to address the development of these understandings?

This kind of goes along with what I just talked about in the previous part.  I’ll add the fact that designing a Moon mission is really high order thinking which requires in-depth understanding of the Moon. 

As far as modifying the lesson, I don’t think I would change much although I would have the students draw their base with specifications.  I may even have them make a small model.  This could get really involved but it would be worth it. 

The students could evaluate each others designs by noting good ideas and areas for improvement.  For example, if a group puts their base on the far side of the Moon and has no orbiting satellite to relay communications to and from Earth, I would hope that other students would see that that would be a problem. 

5. What key misconceptions commonly inhibit a clear and accurate understanding of this content?  How should you modify your instruction to address these misconceptions?

The only big misconception I could see may ironically come into play if the students correctly take into account that there is no permanent dark side of the Moon.  Some may put their base on the far side of the Moon which is completely acceptable.  However, the length of a lunar day is about 28 Earth days so any base, regardless of which side of the Moon it is on, would have 14 days of Sun followed by 14 days of darkness.  There would have to be some major-league solar batteries to last through the dark days. 

And I’m not sure of the axial tilt of the Moon so a polar base may have continuous daylight for 6 months followed by continuous night for the other six months.  I’ll have to look that up.

6. What new scientific information did you learn in this lesson?

Well I really can’t think of anything that I learned new in this lesson.  In my neverending nerdy-ness, I have thought about colonizing the Moon long before this course so pretty much everything that I needed to know about it I already knew.  The most recent thing I learned was a few months ago that water ice was confirmed to be in permanently shaded craters on the Moon.

7. What questions do you still have?  (Write at least two and answer them with the resources and links provided.)

The only big question I have came up while I was writing my response to question 5.  What is the Moon’s axial tilt relative to the Sun?  If it is very low, then the surface of the Moon in continuous daylight or darkness for half the year will be very small (but still at the poles).  If the axial tilt is very high, then the surface of the Moon in continuous daylight or darkness for half the year will be very large. 

According to the textbook for my astronomy class, Astronomy Today, the tilt of the Moon with respect to the ecliptic is 6.7^o which is much smaller than the 23.5^o tilt of Earth.  This means that any spot on the Moon more than 6.7^o from either pole will have at least some sunlight part of the every lunar day throughout the year.  My landing coordinates of 81^o 37’ 10” S is just barely in the light range. 

But I hadn’t considered until now the impact of the Moon’s axial tilt on a lunar mission.  I wonder if my students will think of it…

8. What new instructional practice did you learn?  Describe how you can use this in the classroom.

In my five year teaching career, I have had my students design gravity powered cars and parachutes and synthesize specific amounts of chemicals.  However, I have never had them design something in as much detail as a Moon base and I think that it’s a great idea.  I am seriously considering having them do a project like this at some point this coming year.  I will have to think long and hard about a rubric and how I’m going to grade it but I know that all information will have to be correct but there will be considerable leeway in the design because there is no way that I can foresee what every group will come up with.  I am really looking forward to doing this in class!

One final note, I can’t for the life of me think of a good snappy name (acronym or otherwise) for this Moon mission.

Webquest 2 Blog

1. Develop a concept map, which outlines the big ideas addressed in this webquest along with the fundamental concepts, which students should have as prior knowledge.

Students should know the different types of waves but they may not know the terms wavelength and frequency.  I would hope that they already know some basic uses for most types of waves but I doubt that they would know all the astronomical uses for them.  That would be something to emphasize in class.

2. What SC standards (science, math, or otherwise) are related to the teachings/activities in the webquest?

Again there are no state astronomy standards for high school but waves are covered fairly extensively in physical science in Standard PS-7.  The physical science curriculum introduces waves from the ground up. 

Specific to the information in this webquest are the following standards:

PS-7.3:               Summarize characteristics of waves (including displacement, frequency, period, amplitude, wavelength, and velocity as well as the relationships among these characteristics).

PS-7.5:   Summarize the characteristics of the electromagnetic spectrum (including range of wavelengths, frequency, energy, and propagation without a medium).

PS-7.6:               Summarize reflection and interference of both sound and light waves and the refraction and diffraction of light waves.

In my AP chemistry class, waves are covered at the beginning of the year.  It primarily has to do with spectra of different elements which was mentioned in this webquest.  We talk about how exactly electrons absorb and emit energy in the form of photons and calculate frequencies and wavelengths and such. 

The state chemistry standards do not really mention waves, however.  The closest chemistry standard involves electron configuration which is easily taught without even mentioning waves and I rarely mention waves in my non-AP chemistry classes.

3. Using your support documents for these standards, what is essential for students to understand?

Students need to understand that all elements, compounds, molecules, and minerals exhibit specific spectra.  This allows us to determine the composition of objects that are far away by simply looking at the light that they emit or reflect. 

The picture above is of one of my favorite demos to do in chemistry – the flame test.  When salts are heated, electrons jump to higher energy levels because they absorb the heat energy.  When the electrons fall back to their original energy levels, the release that energy in a process called emission.  Electrons of elements emit energy at specific wavelengths which is shown as different colored light.  This is the same concept behind observing starlight to determine the composition of the star or observing light reflected off of the Moon or planets to determine their compositions. 

What we see as visible light is a very small slice of the entire electromagnetic spectrum as shown by the figure below:

Up until just over a century ago, all astronomy was done in only visible light since that was all that the technology of the time allowed.  But now that technology has advanced considerably, we can observe the sky all across the spectrum which yields tons more information.  For example, Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in the solar system with a significant atmosphere.  It is so thick that it completely obscures Titan’s surface so when Voyager 1 flew by Titan back in the 80s, all it saw through its visible light camera was the following:

But when the Cassini craft started orbiting Saturn in the early 2000s, it was able to view in infrared and ultraviolet light which easily penetrate Titan’s smoggy atmosphere.  Cassini returned images like this:

Surface features are easily seen on Titan in nonvisible wavelengths.  Astronomers once thought that Titan had oceans of liquid methane and ethane possibly miles deep but they’re probably more slushy.  And I’m pretty sure that they have confirmed methane and/or ethane rain which I think is awesome.  It’s the only other body in the solar system with a weather cycle that has liquid in it.

4. How can the materials/information be used to help students develop their essential understandings?  How can you modify the information or lesson to address the development of these understandings?

The best activity in this webquest was looking at solar spectra and identifying elements present in the Sun.  I think that the students would learn a lot by doing a similar activity and it could be presented as a game in which they compete against each other. 

Also, comparing the Moon in different wavelengths would be useful.  I especially would like to show the visible and infrared pictures of the near side of the Moon and have the students explain the differences. 

5. What key misconceptions commonly inhibit a clear and accurate understanding of this content?  How should you modify your instruction to address these misconceptions?

A somewhat common misconception that students have about waves is that they think that waves with long wavelengths, mostly radio and micro, should be visible since the wavelengths are as long as houses and mountains.  While technically we can see waves since we see light, we can’t see the crests and troughs of waves because the amplitudes are so small.  Our eyes can’t see things nearly that small so we see light as a beam rather than a wave.

And one of my favorite misconceptions is when people say that radiation is harmful.  The majority of the electromagnetic spectrum (radio, micro, infrared, and visible) is harmless.  We are exposed to ultraviolet every day we step outside on a sunny day and while too much is not good, ultraviolet light is helpful in producing some kind of vitamin in our skin I believe (I’m not entirely sure which though).  X-rays and gamma rays are pretty harmful but Earth’s atmosphere absorbs them efficiently.

I show the movie “The Core” in my astronomy class when we talk about the Earth system and the students’ assignment is to write down all that is scientifically wrong with the movie which usually takes the front and back of a sheet of notebook paper.  The scene of The Core depicted below is of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay being destroyed by microwaves from the Sun. 

While microwave radiation can heat water, the Sun does not put out concentrated beams of microwaves as depicted above.  And microwaves aren’t blocked by the Earth’s magnetic field anyway since they aren’t charged particles which completely flies in the face of the movie’s premise that the collapse of Earth’s magnetic field would allow lethal microwave radiation to kill everybody.  In fact in my astronomy class last year, it was a running joke all year long that although black holes and gamma ray bursts and the Sun swallowing up Earth as it becomes a red giant could all eventually kill everybody on Earth, it's deadly microwaves that we have the most to worry about.

6. What new scientific information did you learn in this lesson?

I know a fair amount about light and waves and such since it is covered fairly extensively in physical science which I used to teach.  It’s also a big unit in AP chemistry so I really had to learn it in detail before I started teaching AP.  Even with all that, I had no idea that red and blue light corresponded to electric fields and magnetic fields, respectively.  I remember from college physics that electric fields and magnetic fields are perpendicular and I’m pretty sure that the right-hand rule is involved somehow although I can’t remember how exactly.  Spectra are used occasionally in AP and I always tell the story of how a spectrum of an unknown element was discovered in sunlight.  The element was named helium after helios which is the Greek word for the Sun. 

7. What questions do you still have?  (Write at least two and answer them with the resources and links provided.)

How are electric field and magnetic fields related?  I know it involves the right-hand rule and after looking it up, I found the diagram below.

When electricity passes through a wire in the direction indicated by the thumb, the fingers curl in the direction of the magnetic field lines induced by the electric current.  A magnetic field can also induce an electric current. 

What is the source of x-rays on the dark half of the Moon in the picture below?

I looked this up at http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/moon/more.html and it says that the x-rays on the dark side are due to Earth’s geocorona.  I have never heard that term before so I had to look it up.  On http://pluto.space.swri.edu/IMAGE/glossary/geocorona.html, it says that the geocorona is sunlight reflected off of Earth’s exosphere which is the outermost layer of the atmosphere.  The x-rays in the sunlight reflect off of Earth’s exosphere which in turn reflect off of the Moon then are detected by satellites orbiting Earth.  Those dots went through a lot to be in that picture.

8. What new instructional practice did you learn?  Describe how you can use this in the classroom.

I didn’t know that it was possible to make my own spectrometer.  It works ok with lightbulbs but I think tomorrow I’ll go outside and look at a cloud to see what it looks like.

I’m not sure if I will do this in class because it would take a lot of time to illustrate a simple concept that can otherwise be explained in simpler ways.  I can use a prism to show how light can be split into different wavelengths.  Then we can do the flame test demonstration to show how different elements emit specific wavelengths of light.  These two activities are combined in making the spectrometer but both are simpler to do separately. 

However, I might make it an AP chemistry project though to do after the AP exam.

Webquest 1 Blog

1. Develop a concept map, which outlines the big ideas addressed in this webquest along with the fundamental concepts, which students should have as prior knowledge.

 

This was the first time that I made a concept map using an online tool and it actually worked pretty well.  The big thing I notice is that most everything comes back to the Apollo missions which is where we acquired a great deal of information about the Moon.  The rocks returned from the Moon to Earth provided direct evidence that the Moon was formed from Earth by a large impactor billions of years ago.  Also, many of the misconceptions that people have about the Moon directly relate to the Apollo landings.

To understand the material presented in this webquest, students should have prior knowledge of concepts like gravity, light, and forces and motion.  These can be easily re-taught if necessary but it would be helpful if the students came in with this knowledge. 

2. What SC standards (science, math, or otherwise) are related to the teachings/activities in the webquest?

I teach astronomy in high school and there are no state high school astronomy standards which gives me tons of leeway in what material I present in class.  Of course we cover the Moon in good detail since it’s easily visible most days and is something that the students have been familiar with all their lives.  We cover the formation of the Moon (both the accepted and no longer accepted theories and evidence thereof), properties, craters and maria, and effect on Earth. 

Before the unit on the Moon, we spend time on basic calculations involving the force of gravity and a little bit on tidal forces.  The students should have prior knowledge of force and acceleration which are physical science standards.  We relate this to the Moon and how it stays in orbit which leads to a bigger discussion of how to put any object in orbit at any altitude – you just have to throw it hard enough that it falls at the same rate that the Earth curves away from it meaning that it will be falling around Earth which is orbit. 

We also spend some time talking about what the vacuum on the Moon would do to unprotected humans which involves the chemistry standards relating pressure, volume, temperature, and the ideal gas law.  My students always get a kick out of imagining the worst case scenarios in space exploration. 

And although we don’t cover the Moon in chemistry, studying the Moon does relate to the broad chemistry standards (and general science standards) of scientific inquiry.  Whereas the “laboratory apparatuses” in chemistry are beakers and scales, studying the Moon uses telescopes and binoculars along with awesome programs like Google Moon. 

3. Using your support documents for these standards, what is essential for students to understand?

Students must understand that anything with mass has gravity and the more mass an object has, the greater the force of gravity it exerts.  The force of gravity also depends on distance which is why the Moon has a much greater effect on Earth’s tides than the Sun.  Even though the Sun is many times more massive than the Moon, the Sun is much farther away so the effect of its gravity is minimal as compared to the Moon.

Earth’s gravity also holds on to very light stuff like nitrogen and oxygen which make up the vast majority of our atmosphere and which is one reason why the Moon has no atmosphere.  It is important that the students understand that not only does gravity keep us from floating away, it also holds down other things that we often say float.

This can also go into the misconceptions about the Moon.  Logical scientific inquiry should take care of misconceptions on its own although it may require a lot of work.  Using Google Moon and models would help. 

4. How can the materials/information be used to help students develop their essential understandings?  How can you modify the information or lesson to address the development of these understandings?

The best way to study the Moon is to go outside at night and look up.  It’s even better with a pair of binoculars or a telescope.  Learning from pictures in a book is one thing but actually seeing it in real life is entirely different.  Most people don’t even realize that many craters on the Moon are visible to the naked eye but through binoculars they are crystal clear.  The students can look through a telescope and see that the maria are smooth and highlands are mountainous so they can guess which were the targets of the Apollo missions.  This will lead to the discussion of how each was formed, age of each, and type of rock in each.

Google Moon can be used to explore the far side of the Moon.  One activity I did early in my astronomy class was I put a picture of the far side of the Moon on the board and asked my students to identify the object.  Well over half said that it was Mercury since they had never seen a picture of the far side of the Moon even though they are very familiar with what the Moon looks like.  It is taken for granted that people know that the Moon is a sphere but it’s worth taking the time to confirm that. 

Using Google Moon to look at the far side of the Moon will lead to discussions of why we only see one side of the Moon from Earth, how we got pictures of the far side, and why the two sides appear radically different.  This could jump into the Space Race and why craters on the far side of the Moon are named predominantly with Russian names.  All of this can stem from one simple picture. 

5. What key misconceptions commonly inhibit a clear and accurate understanding of this content?  How should you modify your instruction to address these misconceptions?

The Moon is a 2-dimensional circle in the sky.

We don’t know what the dark side of the Moon looks like.

The Moon goes through phases because Earth’s shadow blocks parts of it.

The United States owns the Moon since we got there first and we planted a flag on it.

I could go on and on…

I would love to have a Moon globe like the one we used at the workshop at Roper Mountain.  That could help drive the point home that the Moon is a 3-dimensional object that has a far side but not a dark side – at least not a permanent dark side.  Google Moon could also be used to explore the far side. 

Refuting the misconceptions with the phases is a little tougher I think.  Everybody knows that a shadow cast on half of an object makes that half darker so why doesn’t this apply to the Moon?  The Moon is brightest at night which means that the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon so we must be casting a shadow on the Moon.  It is very difficult for students to visualize why a full Moon is full when it is usually shown in a 2-dimensional diagram in a textbook. 

http://www.afreshhorizon.co.uk/moon_phases.htm

Above is one of the worst diagrams of the phases of the Moon that I have ever seen.  While it is technically correct, it is extremely misleading.  It looks like the new moon should be on the other side of the Earth because the new moon is dark so Earth should be blocking the sunlight from hitting it.  The full moon should be when the Moon is between Earth and the Sun and the last quarter is somehow lit up on the left side even though the Sun’s rays are coming from the other direction.  Students have been seeing diagrams like this forever so no wonder they have misconceptions. 

The diagram below is better.  It is a little more cluttered but it distinguishes between what the Earth-Moon-Sun system looks like from a 3^rd person point-of-view and what it looks like to us standing on Earth. 

http://www.moonphases.info/moon_phases.html

Models are the best to use for this topic though and have the students up and involved like we did at the workshop. 

6. What new scientific information did you learn in this lesson?

I never put it together that the Moon and Earth are made from pretty much the same material (although the Moon lacks large quantities of heavy metals) so studying the Moon can teach us a lot about Earth’s history since Earth’s rocks are significantly different now due to erosion than they used to be.  The Moon has been eroded by solar particles and radiation but not nearly to the extent that weather on Earth has eroded our rocks.  In effect, the Moon is a time capsule of Earth.  Sampling the anorthrosite and bringing it back to Earth for study is very helpful.  Also, if we can get samples from crater ejecta or from the bottom of craters we may be able to see the interior composition of the Moon. 

I knew about the effect of the Moon on Earth’s tides but I did not know that the Moon stabilized Earth’s rotation.  This leads to…

7. What questions do you still have?  (Write at least two and answer them with the resources and links provided.)

How does the Moon stabilize Earth’s axis of rotation?  I don’t know the physics behind it but I would like to.  The Moon is gradually getting farther away from Earth while the Earth is slowing down due to tidal forces and the conservation of angular momentum but how does gravity of the Moon allow Earth’s axis to be consistent?  I wonder if in the distant future when the Moon gets far enough away if the geographic north pole will shift to Canada or Russia instead of the Arctic Ocean. 

I found some answers but it was on a forum but it does make sense.  It is based on the same angular momentum I mentioned above which is based on mass among other things.  By itself, Earth has angular momentum but the Earth-Moon system has a larger angular momentum due to the larger total mass.  Just as it is difficult to slow, stop, or otherwise change the direction of an object with large momentum, it is difficult to change the direction of Earth as it rotates.  Thus, Earth’s rotational axis is stabilized by our relatively large Moon.  Mars, on the other hand, has no large Moon so its rotational axis could have changed a great deal over millions or billions of years which may have affected the development of life. 

What countries have not signed the Outer Space Treaty?  As technology develops, will a non-signing country attempt to claim the Moon or more importantly put weapons up there?  Or will they not be as careful as us in not contaminating the Moon? 

According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/fulltext/treaties/space/space3.htm), a ton of countries have signed the treaty including China and Russia (under the Soviet Union) which are the two countries I would have worried about most because they sometimes don’t act as friends to the United States and they both have advanced technology to get stuff to the Moon.  A notable absentee from the treaty is North Korea.  They do not have the technological capability to make it to the Moon or put satellites into orbit (I don’t think) but I would not put it past them to be working towards that goal.  I would like to see North Korea sign the treaty. 

8. What new instructional practice did you learn?  Describe how you can use this in the classroom.

Google Moon!

This picture is not to scale and the lighting is wrong but I still like it. 

I knew about Google Earth but I had no idea that there was a similar program for the Moon (and Mars too for that matter).  I will definitely be using it a lot in my astronomy class next year.  We can focus on specific craters and other surface features, note the locations of the Apollo landings, and see the far side of the Moon.  We have a laptop cart that we can use so I might see if I can get Google Moon on each one of those then have my students do a mini-webquest.  After the first 20 minutes of them playing around with it on their own, we might actually get some good useful work done!