1. Unit 7L: The Solar System and Beyond
WALT
To study the moon, how it moves in space and what it looks like from Earth.

2. WILF (What I'm Looking For)
By the end of the lesson I would like you to be able to:
Explain why we see only one side of the moon.
Work out, through experimentation, the pattern of the phases of the moon.
Recall the names for each phase of the moon.
Keywords
WALT
To study the moon, how it moves in space and what it looks like from Earth.
Listen out for these words in today’s lesson.
full moon
waxing
waning
gibbous
crescent
new moon
phases

3. FACTFILE The Moon It is Earths biggest natural satellite.
It takes around 28 days to orbit the Earth once. We call this a LUNAR MONTH.
It rotates on its axis at the same speed as it orbits the Earth. We only ever see the same side of the moon.

4. The Moon
FACTFILE
Temperature on the moon goes from 130oC in the light to -130oC in the dark.
The moon’s diameter is 27% that of the Earth.
The moon has far less mass than Earth.
The moon’s gravity causes the tides.

5. The Moon

6. The Apollo Missions
You will need to look up details of the Apollo missions to explain their purpose and historical significance. The link to the Wikipedia page on the missions is Other useful webpages include

7. ‘Earthrise’ ~ Taken from Apollo 8

8. The Phases of the Moon
You are going to do a short experiment to try and explain why the moon appears to change shape during a lunar month.
You will know if you’ve done this well if:
You come up with the correct sequence of pictures.
You correctly identify the position of the moon to make each picture.
You complete the experiment quickly.

9. One person in the middle
How you will do this experiment. 7. 8. 6. S U N
One person in the middle 1. 5.
You will need to prepare some equipment for this experiment. I used some yellow play balls from my children’s ball pit. You will need to colour half of the ball in black with a permanent marker pen. One child sits in the middle and is ‘What you can see from Earth’. Another pupil holds the yellow/black ball and moves into the 8 positions seen above. The important thing is to always make sure that the yellow half of the ball points towards the ‘Sun’ (you will need to make this clear to pupils where in the rom you will consider the Sun to be). As the ‘outside’ pupil moves around, the middle pupil turns and faces the ball and draws what they can see on their whiteboard (see next slide). If this is done correctly, you will get a moon phase diagram at the end of the activity. You can use the next slide to give each of the moons a name. 4. 2. 3.

10. The Phases of the Moon
On your whiteboard: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Left and Right is IMPORTANT!

11. Naming the Moon Phases
No. 7
No. 6
No. 8
No. 1
No. 5
No. 4
No. 2
No. 3

12. Moon Craters
Why is the moon covered in craters?
There is no atmosphere around the moon and so rocks flying through space hit the moon hard and make craters.

13. Useful Websites about the Moon

14. How well did you do? Learning Review
By the end of the lesson I would like you to be able to:
Explain why we see only one side of the moon.
Work out, through experimentation, the pattern of the phases of the moon.
Recall the names for each phase of the moon.
How well did you do?
Look at the three WILF targets above. Talk to you partner about them. Now ask them to put the correct number of ticks next to the lesson objective in your book.
I’m still quite stuck and not sure of what we have covered in this lesson.
I have understood most of the ideas we have looked at in this lesson.
I have understood all of the ideas we have looked at in this lesson.