Category: Uncategorized

Division 10 created images in response to pictures they viewed of the moon.  Their favorite was Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  They used the crayon resist technique to capture the essence of the swirling moonlight in the painting. [metaslider id=2613]

The phase of the moon is how much of the moon appears to us on Earth to be lit up by the sun. Half of the moon is always lit up by the sun, except during an eclipse, but we only see a portion that’s lit up. This is the phase of the moon. Around once per month, the moon orbits around the Earth. As the moon circles the Earth, we can only see a portion of the lit up side. When we can see 100% of the lit up side, this is a full moon. When we can’t see any of the lit up side, this is called a new moon. As the moon orbits or circles the Earth, the phases change.

[metaslider id=2587]

Division 10 demonstrated the phases of the moon using Oreo cookies.  We started with the new moon phase. This is where we can’t see any of the lit up side of the moon. The moon is between us and the sun. As the moon orbits the Earth we can see more and more of the lit up side until finally the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun and we get a full moon. As the moon continues to orbit the Earth we now see less and less of the lit up side.

Division 10 knows that the reason that we see the moon with a glow, is because the light of the sun is reflecting off of the moon.  We think of the moon as a mirror.  In the case of the moon, it’s really a bad mirror. Because the moon is made of such dark rock, it reflects only about 12% of the light that hits it. The amount of light that gets bounced back to earth also depends on the time and place of the orbit of the moon.  When the moon’s orbit puts it in direct forward facing to the earth, we get a larger amount of light bounced back.