Give your pupils a front row seat at the biggest light show in the sky this year! In addition to admiring the total solar eclipse, young astronomers can explain the phenomenon with a little help from an inquiry-based lesson. The focus of the plan is on investigating the relationship between the sun, Earth, and moon through easily assembled experiments aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards.

Concepts

solar eclipses, the sun, the moon, shadows, the corona, lunar eclipse

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Use the North American map of upcoming total solar eclipses to illustrate the infrequency of the event
• Keep an eye on the lunar calendar and plan to implement the inquiry regarding the changing color of the moon

Classroom Considerations

• Consider the age of the class when using the Moon Journal; teachers can easily modify it into worksheet format for younger learners
• As the inquiries work as stand-alone activities, the time required for the resource heavily depends upon the number of investigations you plan to conduct

Pros

• The diverse assortment of hands-on investigations works well for learners of every age
• The thoughtfully planned teacher's guide is full of NGSS guiding questions and storylines, making it perfect for teachers that are new to these standards
• Educators can modify activities for pairs or individual work

Cons

• None