In this lesson, we covered many of the astronomy content topics that are found in the K-12 educational standards -- the phases of the Moon, eclipses, and the seasons. Studies have shown, and my own experience has shown, that the three dimensional geometry of the Sun, Earth, Moon system is a difficult concept to teach. I hope you now understand it well and feel better equipped to teach the topic. In particular, I hope you are able to picture for yourself the distribution of these objects and their relative locations at a given time of day, on a given day of the year, and at a given phase of the Moon. If you have any remaining questions, please do not hesitate to ask!
I want you to reflect on what was covered in this lesson, in particular about the changing appearance of the Moon. Consider how you might adapt these materials (or the materials from the additional resources page) for your own classroom. Since this is a discussion activity, you will need to enter the discussion forum more than once in order to read and respond to others' postings.
You will be graded on the quality of your participation. See the grading rubric [1] (identical to the one from Earth 530) for specifics on how this assignment will be graded.
Finally, to complete this lesson, you need to take the Web-based Lesson 1 quiz.
Good luck!
You have finished the reading for Lesson 1. Double-check the list of requirements on the Lesson 1 Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before beginning the next lesson.