Not only did we see that the changing color of the moon seems to be a reoccurring phenomenon, as well as the moon's phases, we are also seeing that a Supermoon or a Micromoon can appear, too! And by a show of hands, we're seeing that these things have been seen by many of our classmates, meaning they show up again and again!
With lots of ideas out on the table, many ideas focused on these three areas:
1. The moon moving closer and farther from the Earth.
2. The Earth moving closer and farther to the moon as it spins for day/night.
3. Some combination of possibly both the moon and the Earth moving different distances from each other.
It was unanimous that distance between the objects was playing a role, but what really happens when things get closer/farther from other things? So what would this look like in a model? Students showed their thinking and the following five models were discussed by the class:
1. The moon moving closer and farther from the Earth.
2. The Earth moving closer and farther to the moon as it spins for day/night.
3. Some combination of possibly both the moon and the Earth moving different distances from each other.
It was unanimous that distance between the objects was playing a role, but what really happens when things get closer/farther from other things? So what would this look like in a model? Students showed their thinking and the following five models were discussed by the class:
Each of the following models highlighted important things we figured out, but didn't necessarily show them:
1. The moon does indeed orbit the Earth.
2. The size of the moon doesn't change, just its appearance.
3. If the moon's size doesn't change, and it orbits the Earth, the only way to get it to appear bigger or smaller would mean its distance from the Earth would have to be closer at some points in its orbit and farther at others.
So we worked through our thinking and came to consensus! The best news is that tomorrow is going to be a SuperMoon event alongside a lunar eclipse! What?!?!?!
1. The moon does indeed orbit the Earth.
2. The size of the moon doesn't change, just its appearance.
3. If the moon's size doesn't change, and it orbits the Earth, the only way to get it to appear bigger or smaller would mean its distance from the Earth would have to be closer at some points in its orbit and farther at others.
So we worked through our thinking and came to consensus! The best news is that tomorrow is going to be a SuperMoon event alongside a lunar eclipse! What?!?!?!
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