As the end of the year came to a close, we revisited the DQB to see what questions we still had left.  Between various simulators and videos, we did our best to honor student ideas, including a very much needed field trip to CU's Fiske Planetarium!  We ended our unit in typical fashion, answering questions on the DQB!  Here's a sampling of student answers!

8th graders, I am so proud of your hard work this despite so many factors.  You welcomed me to LMS and trusted me to guide your work this year.  Thank you!

We saw how our lunar eclipse model couldn't explain for the color differences we see during a lunar eclipse. Why on earth is it red?!?!?!  We began putting ideas together to recognize that while in the Earth's shadow, the light that reaches the moon passes through the Earth's atmosphere, full of various gases and particles.  Does this do something with the white light from the Sun?

We placed various substances in water (the next best medium to recreate the atmosphere) and saw some pretty incredible things happen when light travels through longer stretches of the atmosphere in order to get to the moon when it's in the perfect spot for a lunar eclipse!

Ideas are flying off the shelves!  Students are seeing that the light "changes" color as it travels through more of the Earth's atmosphere!

Not only did we see patterns with the Earth and the Sun, but we also saw patterns with the Earth and the moon!  We wondered about:

1.  Solar eclipses
2.  Moon phases
3.  Lunar eclipses

Through various investigations and modeling, we figured out so much (Mrs. Brinza didn't take any pics, whoops)!  We saw how using data from NASA, that solar eclipses are much more rare than lunar eclipses. Which also led us to figure out how a lunar eclipse is different than a full moon!

Video footage and real life data from a local lunar eclipse got us wondering about the color difference we see during a lunar eclipse.  The moon appears red like the colors we see at sunrise and sunset!  Next steps, figure out about that color change!

Once students figured out all the patterns with the relationship between the Earth and the Sun, it was time to return to the original launch of our unit and explain Manhattanhenge, along with predict when the second event would be!  We reflected upon each others' predictions to support or refute their claims.  What a great experience 8th graders!

Next steps...figure out patterns with the moon!

Seeing how there is different amounts of light at different times of the year, along with different solar elevations, we sought out to see what happens with the light when it's coming to the Earth at various heights.  

We saw that during summer months, when the sun was "high" in the sky, the area it shines at is greatly reduced, making the sunlight that much more direct and "concentrated" as students mentioned.  During winter months, when the sun appears lower in the sky, we see more indirect light that covers a greater area.  It's all coming together as to why it's warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter!

With some random materials found around the science closets at school, students set out to build a physical model to explain the patterns we saw from various simulators and videos--longer days in the summer with a sun higher in the sky, and shorter days in the winter with a sun lower in the sky.

We knew that the Earth turns on its axis and that it points to the North Star.  Measuring the distance from sunrise to sunset on our physical models at various points in the year gave us the following data:

Reflecting upon our data got us thinking that we didn't see a point where there was a long period of daylight (like in June) and a short period of daylight (like in December).  We also didn't see two times where the daylight amount was approximately the same (like at the equinoxes in March and September).

We agreed to revise our models to try and show the patterns we've seen in the sky.

After repositioning the N. Star and leaning the Earth towards the N. Star so we could always see it in our nighttime sky in the northern hemisphere, we started to see data that matched what naturally happens during the solstices and equinoxes in the northern hemisphere.  

With all this data, we're now trying to see how the tilt of the Earth and longer/shorter amounts of daylight affects other patterns on the Earth.  What does the tilt mean for the type of light we experience during each time period of a year?

Recognizing we see patterns with sun ourselves, we also recognized that these patterns haven't just been noticed by us.  They've been occurring for a long time!  We turned to two interviews with different Native American tribes--Navajo Nation and Paiute to see that not only do they see patterns with the Sun, but with another star as well...the North Star!

Both these tribes share a common theme that many students have heard of:  the North Star is directly above us!

So we turned to this idea to begin collecting data on what happens as the Earth is pointed northwards towards the North Star and the amount of daylight changes over the course of a year.  

As a class we agreed on the following things from watching a simulator based on what we see with the Sun:

1.  The sun and moon move across the sky from E to W.
2.  The N. Star is always pointed upwards.
3.  The Sun is higher in the sky in summer months and takes a longer path across sunrise to sunset.
4.  The Sun is lower in the sky in winter months and takes a shorter path across sunrise to sunset. 

We launched our unit right after spring break and it was so neat to see it inspired by an event that was pretty close to Mrs. Brinza's heart.

Moving to Colorado from Chicago, Mrs. Brinza's newsfeed on social media is still connected there.  And on March 20th, right at the start of spring break, there was an event called Chicagohenge, which looked like this!

And with a little digging, an event like this occurs in other places, like in Manhattan, NY in May.

It was so neat to see that at a couple times of a year, the sun sets PERFECTLY in between buildings in each of these locations.  So many people are connected to this event, that it made us realize that not only are we connected to patterns that happen in the sky, but people from other cultures have been for years, too!   We listened to podcasts from various cultures to realize that they're connected to the sky because of patterns they see with the sun, with the moon, with populations of organisms, and even the stars in the nighttime sky.

Students shared out their own connections to the sky and space, coming up with these related phenomena:

We realized that regardless of the event we felt connected to in the sky or the podcast we listened to, there were patterns happening in the sky that we agreed upon.  Check out our first consensus model:

So many questions about all these events surfaced, and we built our Driving Question Board:

From all our questions, we even came up with investigation ideas we could do (can you tell these 8th graders are getting a little "is-it-the-end-of-the-year-icitis?!?!" by some of the silly investigation ideas they came up with!?!?!)

So many great ideas here!  Where do we begin!