What do you know about the Earth, Sun, and Moon?

Hello Everyone,

Many students in our class already have knowledge about the sun, moon, space, stars, and more. Because of this, we are discussing the grade 4/5 science curriculum with additional depth and complexity, and we are also doing learning about space through applied design!

What I want to make sure of, though, is that everyone has the basics! So, through our class discussions and readings I have given, I am asking you all to know the following things:

  • What are the phases of the moon? Why do they happen?
  • What is a tide and how does it happen?
  • How does day/night happen? How do the seasons happen?
  • How does an eclipse happen?
  • What is Earth’s place in the solar system?
  • What are some characteristics of the sun, moon, space, Earth, and stars?
  • What are the planet names?

If you know them already, I invite you to please expand your knowledge by looking at the many space websites I provided under our “Arts and Sciences” unit at the Articles of Interest page of the blog, do additional research in the many space books I have provided at the carpet area in the green buckets, or contribute to our spaceship research as we lead up to doing an applied design project on June 13th!

Some more advanced things you might want to find out about are:

  • What are the various layers of the atmosphere?
  • What is the Goldilock’s principle?
  • What are some of the major constellations and their stories?
  • What is an aurora borealis?
  • What is the difference between a meteoroid, meteor, meteorite, asteroid, and comet?
  • How do stars form?
  • How does the design of a spaceship reflect the needs of astronauts as they survive in space?
  • What are the relative sizes of the planets in relation to the sun?
  • Why does the Earth’s day length change during the year?
  • What is dark matter? What is a black hole?
  • What is the Hubble and why is it up in space?
  • How does space travel impact the human body?

There are many more great questions you can explore, and that is just a start! Enjoy your explorations about space!

Ms. D