Image of the distance between moon and earth: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91494/right-here-right-now (The Moon is 384,400 km from Earth. It is only 40,000 km around the earth)
Choose two or three activities for a lesson.
Sun, Earth and the Moon to scale, best done outdoors across a gravel field.
Show how there is mostly empty space between the Moon and Earth, and the Sun.
Phases of the Moon:
Ask students if they have seen the different phases (shapes) of the moon.
Show them an image of the phases of the moon e.g. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/moon_phases.png
Do the Phases of the moon activity
Moon phases puzzle:
To reinforce the order of the moon phases.
Make the collection larger or smaller depending on the students' age.
Images on the Moon's surface:
Look closely at the moon's surface e.g. image at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Full_Moon_%2815984763045%29.jpg
or https://moon.nasa.gov/news/25/the-next-full-moon-is-the-flower-moon-cor…
What do you see? Different cultures see a Man, a Rabbit, or other images (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Moon#mediaviewer/File:Man_In_Th…)
Gallileo was the first to realise that the moon was mountainous by watching the shadows changing (others thought it smooth, and also that everything revolved around the sun). In 1609. See Gallileo's paintings of the moon at http://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GalileoMoon1.jpg Now we can look a lot closer to the moon and see mountains and craters. See https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/353/wallach-crater/?category=images
Light and dark areas of the Moon:
Look at a high resolution photo of the Moon to see the dark and light areas in it. e.g. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Full_Moon_%2815984763045%29.jpg
We know how these features are formed - dark areas are lava flows from when the moon was younger - same rock as basalt on earth (though different composition). The light-coloured areas on the Moon are feldspar rock (specifically anorthosite).
The light from the Sun reflects off the Moon and bounces back to Earth. So ‘moonlight' is actually reflected sunlight. The dark areas of the Moon reflect less sunlight.
Reflection activity to show that the light areas of the Moon are reflecting the Sun's light, and the dark areas are not.
More details here: https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/sun-moonlight/moonlight/#:~:text=T…)%20rocks%2C%20like%20anorthosite.
The Sun heats up the Moon’s surface to 120°C in the daytime. It can cool to -193°C at night time. (No atmosphere to spread heat around its surface, as on Earth.)
The round circles on the Moon's surface are craters from chunks of rock, or meteorites hitting the moon. All the mountains are formed by impacts, as the moon does not have tectonic plates.
Crater activity to show how the craters and their rays are formed.
Moon landing sites:
To land on the moon we needed to look much closer to map out a landing site.
Through the cameras of a probe called Ranger 9 at the Alphonsus Crater, we see the images on p.4, 5 and 6 of http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/377727main_Lunar_Math.pdf (Ranger 9 crash-landed on the moon (1965), to find a potential place for man to land on the moon).
Now there have been many moon landings (see the interactive webpage at http://moon.nasa.gov/home.cfm). (On this interactive, Ranger 9 is blue circle just lower left of centre earth-facing image.)
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) is currently making a detailed study of the moon and impact analysis has found water-ice on the moon.
Moon dust:
The surface of the moon is covered in “regolith” or moon dust.
We will make regolith, then look at one of its properties that has made work on the moon challenging.
Do the Moon reglolith activity.
Gravity on the moon:
Gravity: Astronaut jumping video - gravity difference between moon and earth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=efzYblYVUFk
Feather and hammer dropped on moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDp1tiUsZw8
