| Outer Orbit: Lesson Plans -- Down to the Moon (Grades 9-12) This simulation lands students on the moon in a survival situation. Keeping in mind lunar differences such as reduced gravity and lack of atmosphere, students must rank the value of the 15 items still operable after a forced landing far from the moon base. This activity can be assigned as a group task or an individual task and should strengthen students' decision making skills. |
| Educator's Guide to Moon PhasesThis activity explains how teachers can demonstrate the actual phases of the moon using a styrofoam ball and a light source. This activity is simple enough that students could actually create the moon phases themselves. |
| Teacher Page: Lunar Life Support A future lunar base will have to be a self-contained habitat with all the life support systems necessary for the survival of people, animals, and plants. In this series of activities, the students will be designing and building models of nine life support systems which are crucial to our successful settlement of the Moon. This activity is based on the Marsville activity on life support systems developed by the Challenger Center. |
| Teacher Page: Lunar Landform Identification This activity uses eight photographs taken by Apollo mission orbital cameras to show thirteen major landforms on the surface of the Moon (defined above.) Students match the numbers on the photographs (1 through 20) with the name of the landform. A "Lunar Landform Identification" student chart is provided to record answers. |
| Phases of the Moon This activity provides the instructor with a socratic introduction to moon phases and a student activity in which students demonstrate the phases of the moon. This site also provides a "try this" section which suggests keeping a journal of moon diagrams for 30 days to see how a calendar is developed. This is an excellent one class resource that provides students with an interesting hands on activity that explains the moon phases. |