Curriki - NASAExploringtheMoonEducatorGuide

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NASA Exploring the Moon Educator Guide

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Exploring the Moon - Introductory Materials

Introductory Materials

The title page, acknowledgments, table of contents, explanations of the guide, the lunar sample disk and Exploring the Moon slide set make up this section of the Exploring the Moon Educator Guide.

To download the Introductory Materials, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - National Education Standards Charts

National Education Standards Charts

The lesson plans and activities in the Exploring the Moon Educator Guide correlate to national science and mathematics standards. The matrix charts show the standards and science process skills that apply to each activity.

To download the standards charts, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - The Moon -- Gateway to the Solar System Teacher's Guide

The Moon - Gateway to the Solar System Teacher's Guide

This introduction to the moon provides background information for educators about the geology, history and composition of the moon.

To download the teacher's guide, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Moon ABCs Fact Sheet

Moon ABCs Fact Sheet

The Moon ABCs Fact Sheet includes comparisons of Earth and the moon. It also includes "Brain Busters," which are questions about Earth and the moon that stimulate thinking.

To download the fact sheet, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Rock ABCs Fact Sheet

Rock ABCs Fact Sheet

The Rock ABCs Fact Sheet from the Exploring the Moon Educator Guide contains facts about minerals and rocks. This fact sheet also compares the differences between rocks and minerals.

To download the fact sheet, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Progress in Lunar Science

Progress in Lunar Science

Students can use The Progress in Lunar Science Chart to learn what has been discovered about the moon from 1959 to 1997.

To download the chart, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Nearside of the Moon: Apollo Landing Sites

Nearside of the Moon - Apollo Landing Sites

Students can use this photo of the moon to see the landing sites of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17, which are marked on this photo.

To download the photo, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Pre-Apollo Activities

Pre-Apollo Activities

The first unit of the Exploring the Moon Educator Guide is an introduction to the moon -- how it looks from Earth, its distance from Earth and its size. The lesson plans and activities allow students to make comparisons between Earth and its only natural satellite. This section contains background information and a resource section for the three lessons: Distance to the Moon, Diameter of the Moon, and Reaping Rocks.

To download the activities, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Distance to the Moon

Distance to the Moon

In this activity, students calculate the distance between scale models of Earth and the moon.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Diameter of the Moon

Diameter of the Moon

This activity requires that students calculate the diameter of the moon by comparing it to a two-centimeter cardboard disc.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Reaping Rocks

Reaping Rocks

Students make predictions about the origin of lunar rocks by collecting, describing and classifying rocks from their neighborhood.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Learning from Apollo

Learning from Apollo

Unit 2 of the Exploring the Moon Educator Guide highlights the discoveries made during the Apollo program. This section contains background information and a resource section for the activities and lessons.

To download the activity introduction, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - The Lunar Disc

The Lunar Disk

After studying rocks that they have collected for the Reaping Rocks lesson, students can compare their samples to the rock samples from the moon.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Apollo Landing Sites

Apollo Landing Sites

Between 1969 and 1972, 12 astronauts from six Apollo missions landed on and explored the nearside (Earth-facing side) of the moon. The six landing sites were chosen to explore different geologic terrains. Students will use longitude and latitude coordinates to locate these landing sites on a moon globe.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Regolith Formation

Regolith Formation

Regolith is loose, unconsolidated rock, mineral and glass fragments in the soil. In this activity, students use everyday objects to learn that regolith on Earth is a product of weather, but on the moon it is a product of meteorite impact.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Lunar Surface

Lunar Surface

In this activity students will use modeling clay or plaster of Paris to construct model surfaces to match what they see on maps and photographs of the moon. They "flag" Apollo landing sites and consider the collection site of each Lunar Disk sample.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Differentiation

Differentiation

When planets begin to melt, the materials in them begin to separate from one another. The heaviest materials, such as metallic iron, sink to form cores. Low-density magmas rise, forming crusts. This process is called differentiation. In this activity, students will simulate differentiation using pennies, sand, water and toothpicks.

To download this activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Impact Craters

Impact Craters

Impact craters are formed when impactors such as meteorites smash into the moon's surface. The factors affecting the appearance of impact craters include the size and velocity of the impactor and the geology of the surface. Students will use flour, baking soda and cornmeal to recreate a lunar surface. They will then drop impactors such as marbles onto their lunar surface from various heights. Finally, they will measure various characteristics of the impact craters formed.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Clay Lava Flows

Clay Lava Flows

Using clay as an analog for lava, students will pour clay mixtures down an inclined plane to learn about some of the geological processes and the structures that form as lava flows across planetary landscapes.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Lava Layering

Lava Layering

Students can learn how geologists use stratigraphy, the study of layered rock, to understand the sequence of geological events. As students watch baking soda-vinegar "lava" flow from their clay volcanoes, they will see that the lava follows different paths. They will also learn how to distinguish between older and newer layered flows.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

Lunar Landing Sites

Using their knowledge of the lunar surface, students are challenged to plan a mission to the moon. In this activity, teams of students design a spacecraft, choose a suitable lunar landing site and present their ideas before the class. Final presentations should include speeches and visual aids such as maps, diagrams and three-dimensional models.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Lunar Roving Vehicles

Lunar Roving Vehicles

A robotic explorer such as a rover may have four wheels, but it is different from a family car. In this activity, students compare the two vehicles, and then design and build a rover model that may be used to explore the moon. Special considerations for the vehicle include the type of terrain the rover will traverse.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Moon Anomalies

Moon Anomalies

Although people know a lot about the moon, some things just don’t add up. In this activity, students research, develop hypotheses, present arguments and debate possible solutions to one of the following four questions:

Why does the moon have fewer moonquakes than Earth has earthquakes?

Why are no volcanoes on the moon?

Why does the farside of the moon have fewer maria than the nearside?

Why does the moon have a weaker magnetic field than Earth?

To download this activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - The Future

The Future

The activities in this unit will spark interest in responsible land use and sustainable human settlements on the moon. Each activity uses and reinforces the knowledge students have gained about the moon and Earth from Units 1 and 2. These activities require teamwork, research, and development of model systems. This section contains independent and commercial sources of items to complement Unit 3.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Lunar Land Use

Lunar Land Use

In this activity, teams of students will present proposals for settlements on the moon in a competition for approval from a student-staffed Lunar Council. This activity commonly runs eight class days.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Life Support Systems

Life Support Systems

A future lunar base will have to be a self-contained habitat with all the life support systems necessary for the survival of humans, animals and plants. In this series of activities, the students will design and build models of nine life support systems that are crucial to successful human settlement of the moon.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Lunar Biospheres

Lunar Biospheres

Earth is the ultimate biosphere. It holds and sustains all life known to humanity. As people look forward to traveling and living beyond Earth, conditions are seen that are too harsh to sustain life as humans know it. Conditions on the moon are not favorable for sustaining life because of the absence of water, organic topsoil and atmosphere. Artificial light must be used during the long, dark periods. This activity challenges students to create a working model of a lunar biosphere that is a balanced, self-enclosed living system able to run efficiently over a long period of time.

To download the activity, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.

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Exploring the Moon - Glossary

Glossary

Reference materials in this section include a glossary of terms and a list of Internet resources pertaining to the moon and Earth sciences.

To download the glossary, click here. You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.