Day 21

Day 21-February 25, 2014

Observed outside my house at 8:00 pm

Conditions were cloudy and cold

Phase: Waning crescent

Day 20

Day 20- February 24, 2014

Observed outside my house @ 8:45 pm

Conditions were clear skies 

Phase:Waning Cresent

Day 19

Day 19-February 23, 2014

Viewed outside my house at 11 pm

Conditions were clear skies

Phase: Waning Crescent

Day 18

Day 18-February 22, 2014

viewed outside my house @ 12:04 am

conditions were clear skies

Phase: Last quarter

Day 17

Day 17- February 21, 2014

viewed outside my house @ 10:00 pm

conditions were cold and rainy, with thunderstorms

moon phase: waning gibbous 

Day 16

Day 16-February 20, 2014

Viewed at Birmingham Southern College @ 11:15

Conditions were rainy and cloudy, with thunderstorms

Moon phase: waning gibbous

Day 15

Day 15- February 19, 2014

Viewed at my house @ 7:30 pm

Conditions were rainy and mostly clear skies

moon phase: waning gibbous

Day 14

Day 14- February 18, 2014 

viewed from UAB at 6:50 pm

Conditions were very foggy

moon phase: waning gibbous 

Day 13

February 17, 2014 @ 10:05

Viewed at Birmingham Southern

Clear skies

Moon phase: Waning gibbous 

Day 12

Day 12- February 16, 2014

viewed outside my house @ 10 pm

conditions were clear skies

moon phase: waning gibbous

Day 11

February 15, 2014 @ 6:50

Viewed at intersection on Patton Chapel Road

conditions were cool and clear

moon phase: waning gibbous

Day 10

Day 10-February 14, 2014

viewed outside my house @ 6:30 pm

conditions were very rainy

moon phase: full moon

Day 9

Day 9- February 13, 2014 @ 9:05 pm

viewed outside my house

conditions were snowy and mostly clear skies

moon phase: waxing gibbous

Day 8

Day 8- February 12, 2014

viewed on a snow hike through my neighborhood @ 8:30 pm

conditions were snowy

moon phase: waxing gibbous

Day 7

Day 7- February 11, 2014 @ 11:00 pm

viewed at UAB

conditions were rainy and partly cloudy

moon phase: waxing gibbous

Day 4

Day 4- February 8, 2014@ 10:30pm

viewed from Birmingham Southern

conditions were cold and rainy with clear skies

moon phase: waxing gibbous

Day 2

Day 2- February 6, 2014

viewed outside my house at 8:00 pm

conditions were snowy and very cold

moon phase: first quarter

Day 1

Day 1- February 5, 2014

viewed outside my house @ 7:30 pm

conditions were rainy and cold

moon phase: waxing crescent

Content Understanding

1.What I learned from this project:

Tracking the moons phases is a lot easier to understand when you know what you're looking for. When you're looking at the moon with an unaided eye, its hard to see the moon's slight phases changes from day to day, but when you know what phase the moon is in, or have been predicting what it might look like, its a lot easier to spot certain things about the moon. The moon's size appears smaller and smaller as the night goes on. By getting students to observe the moon over a long period of time, it is a good way to get them to notice  other observations of the night sky.

2. What creates our moon phases:

The moon's passes are created by the way the Earth, moon and sun are positioned. The sun's light reflects on the moon. Whichever angle the sun is shining on the moon is what we see. The angles change when the moon orbits the Earth.

3.Why the moon can rise and set at any point in the day:

Depending on what angle the Earth AND the moon are at, the moon can be seen at different times every day. The moon has an increasing lag behind the sun each day (until cycle is complete.)

4. A method to teaching children about predicting the moon phases:

Using the inside of Oreo's with frosting to manipulate the moon's phases (along with videos images of the moon's phases.)

Kid-friendly apps that help students learn about space

1. Solar System for iPad

This is a book, by Marcus Chown, that has been made into an interactive exploration app for children.

2. Wubbzy's Space Adventure

This app is an interactive story book; containing two activities, two mini games and three videos. This app is geared for younger children.

3.Space Place Prime

This app is connected to NASA's website and gives information, videos, photos, articles, etc. This app is geared for older students.

Children' Books Related to Space

1. Through the Milky Way on a PB&J by James McDonald

Two kids go on a journey through space. Pictures are very vibrant and realistic.

2. I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton

This books explains what its like to be up in space.

3. If You Decide to go to the Moon by Faith McNulty

This book gives intricate illustrations and is an easy read for younger kids.

4. Astronaut Handbook by Meghan Mccarthy

This book is an informational, nonfiction book that give information about space in the sense of preparing the reader to go up in space.

5. Reaching for the Moon by Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.

This book is an autobiography of an astronaut's trip into space.

6. Pocket Genius: Space by DK Publishing

This book is a children's encyclopedia on everything space-related.

7. Look Inside Space by Rob Lloyd Jones

This is a flip book for younger readers that gives information about the different aspect of space.

8. My Book of Planets by Elise See Tai

This books is for early readers with peek holes in the pages. The reader flips the pages to read about each different planet.

9. This Way to the Moon by Miroslav Sasek

This book is about the history of space exploration; back through the decades to modern exploration.

10. Our Stars by Anne F. Rockwell

This is a good read aloud book for very young children to gt them thinking about the concept of space.

Kid-friendly websites about the Solar System

1. http://www.kidsastronomy.com

This website has so much information on space.It has countless tabs that lead to different things you would find in space. This site also has activities, interactive games and ideas for lesson topics.

2. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/

This site is provided by NASA to help kids learn about space. It is extremely interactive and offers everything from information, to games, to crafts, and more.

3. http://www.planetsforkids.org/

This site has a ton of information to offer. It is geared towards younger children and makes information about space easy to understand.

4. http://kids.nineplanets.org/

This website is geared for younger children and focuses mainly on the planets, sun and asteroid belts.

5. http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

This site is more information centered and geared for older children. It would be a good resource for a research project on space.

Social Studies Integration Page

• Moon Myths:
• A full moon can cause lunacy. Some police and hospital workers still claim that people are wilder on a full moon. There has not been any substantial statistical evidence for this claim though. 
• The Moon brings love. In Chinese folklore, Yue-Laou is an old man in the moon who unites predestined couples together. British women as well, who hoped to receive a dream about their true love would recite the following verse under a New moon: “New moon, new moon, I hail thee! By all the virtue in thy body, grant this night that I may see he who my true love is to be.” The Moon has also traditionally been appealed to in order to bring fertility. 
• The Moon changes size. The Inuit people that live in Greenland named their Moon god Anningan. According to his story, Annigan chases his sister Malina, the Sun goddess, around the sky. This tiring work, paired with a lack of food, causes Annigan to get much thinner. This myth was an attempt to explain the phases of the moon as it recedes from a full moon to a crescent.
• Ideas integrating historical events through space explorations:
• The unit could integrate space exploration by studying different trips to the moon and by recording:
• How it helped us learn more about the moon
• What it took to get up to the moon
• What the astronauts experience from being in space
• What we left on the moon and what we took back to Earth from the moon

Classroom Implementation Page

If I was to do this project in 4th grade classroom or higher, I would modify this project by having them sketch the moon each night (in their moon journal) for homework, but then then the next day we would figure out what phase the moon was in as a class. I would also have my students have a "moon prediction" chart that they would draw what they though the moon would look like that night and check if the prediction was correct or incorrect the next day. I would communicate with the parents by sending a letter before the moon unit to encourage their child to pay attention to the moon. An idea to make the unit more "user friendly" would be to send home a "moon calendar" that parents could hang on the fridge to keep track of the moon with their children.

Day 6

Day 6- February 10, 2014 @ 7:50pm

viewed from outside my house

conditions were somewhat cloudy and rainy

moon phase: waxing gibbous

Day 5

Day 5- February 9, 2014

viewed outside my house @ 8:45pm

conditions were clear skies

moon phase: waxing gibbous

Day 3