Pre-Built Lesson: Exploring the Moon
Space has a special place in our hearts, and we hope you enjoy exploring the moon as much as we do. In this STEM lesson plan for elementary schoolers, you’ll mimic the creation of craters on the moon’s surface, read about the amazing Margaret Hamilton, and eat your way through the phases of the moon!
Resources in This Lesson
Resource 1
Use baking ingredients to learn about the moon’s craters and gather clues about its age and surface composition in this experiment from a super fun episode of Rosie Explores!
Rosie Explores Moon Craters
https://handsonstem.rosieriveters.com/resources/snack-time-science-moon-craters/
Resource 2
For our book, we’re reading Margaret and the Moon, which explores the life of Margaret Hamilton, one of the first female computer scientists and software engineers whose work saved the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Rosie Reads Margaret and the Moon
https://handsonstem.rosieriveters.com/resources/rosie-reads-margaret-and-the-moon/
Resource 3
For the project portion of this lesson, which we call Rosie Makes, we’re investigating the phases of the moon – with cookies! We used Oreos, but any sandwich cookie works. And if you can’t get your hands on cookies, drawing the moon’s phases is awesome too (just less tasty)! Printables are necessary for this project; make sure you access them via the links in the project description.
Rosie Makes the Phases of the Moon
https://handsonstem.rosieriveters.com/resources/phases-of-the-moon/
Resource 4
Continue learning and exploring with some of these tried and tested Rosie Recommends activities from other STEM educational resources.
Rosie Recommends Space Activities!
https://handsonstem.rosieriveters.com/resources/rosie-recommends-space-activities/
Check out these tried and tested space activities from other STEM educational resources!
Recommended Resources
Resource 1
Visit the STEM Laboratory for this fun and easy project that situates the solar system on a hat! Kids get to practice planetary order while making a piece of wearable art; be sure to catch the fun mnemonic for remembering the order too!
Resource 2
File this under awesome: NASA has an entirely free space math resource! The content covered ranges from addition and subtraction to calculus, and can be sorted by grade level, NASA mission, space topic, or national learning standard. As NASA acknowledges, some problems do require several different math and science skills as they are based on real world scenarios. So you’ll want to look them over, including the accompanying answer key, before passing any along to your kids. But they are so fun (note: we spent hours going through them)! Some of our favorites – all of which fall into the 3-5 grade level – are Space Science Crossword, Solar Storm Number Puzzle, Planetary Conjunctions, and Groups, Clusters, and Individuals.
Resource 3
Design and Build a Lunar Rover
NASA explores the moon and collects data using a lunar rover, and this fun engineering activity guides you through building a prototype at home. The materials are basic but the outcome is pretty terrific! Kids will also get to make hypotheses and play with the design process as they experiment with different wheel shapes. Find a PBS Kids video of the process and additional trouble shooting tips here as well!
This experiment explores moon craters – particularly those made by impact activity – and gathers clues about its age and surface composition.
Want to duplicate this experiment at home or in your classroom? Watch the video for an overview, gather the materials listed at the right, and follow the instructions below!
Watch The Video
https://youtu.be/X4SRNtW6BvI
Required Materials
- cocoa powder
- chocolate chips
- flour
- baking dish
- rocks
- tinfoil
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1
Layer the flour (subsurface), chocolate chips (minerals), and cocoa (regolith) in the baking dish in that order to represent the three layers of the moon’s surface.
Step 2
Cover the small rocks of varying sizes that you’ve collected with tinfoil to represent asteroids and other materials that impact the moon’s surface.
Step 3
Drop and toss the rocks into your layered ingredients from different heights and angles. Note how distance and force impact the size and depth of the holes the rocks make, as well as the rays, or lines, that flow out from the hole. These indicate the direction and speed of impact. Overall, these clues tell us all kinds of important things about the moon, including it’s age!
In this episode, Rosie Reads Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing! The book was written by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Lucy Knisely, and published in 2017.
Margaret and the Moon, an illustrated biography for kids, explores the life of Margaret Hamilton, one of the first female computer scientists and software engineers. It was her work developing software that recognized error conditions and included recovery programs that saved the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
And all the parents out there will appreciate this: it was Hamilton’s daughter Lauren that inadvertently led to the innovation! Hamilton frequently brought Lauren with her to the lab on nights and weekends, and while playing with the command module – what child wouldn’t?!? – she caused it to crash, leading Hamilton to advocate for error-checking code although NASA countered that astronauts were trained to be “perfect”. As history shows, Hamilton prevailed (thank goodness)!
When you’re finished reading Margaret and the Moon, ask kids these comprehension questions:
- What are two facts you learned about the moon from the book?
- How did Margaret approach problem solving throughout her life, and how did it help her develop the software that saved the lunar landing?
For our Rosie Reads activity, ask kids to examine gender stereotypes (the book lists a few common ones in its first pages), and how they have and haven’t changed since Margaret Hamilton was growing up. Ask kids to make a list, including pictures, of things that mostly boys or mostly girls do today just like the author and illustrator did in the book. How did Margaret change this? And how might kids continue this same work today?
Watch The Video
https://youtu.be/eBScUaHXjn8
Explore the phases of the moon with Oreo cookies! Don’t have Oreos? Any sandwich cookie will do. And if you can’t get your hands on cookies, drawing the moon’s phases is awesome too (just a little less tasty, lol)!
When you’ve had your fill of moon cookies, take the lesson one step further and explore why we view the moon in phases by creating mini-moon models. These examine how the sun’s reflected light and the moon’s orbit change its appearance from the Earth!
Ready to make this project at home or in your classroom? Watch the video for an overview, gather the materials listed at the right, and follow the instructions below! You’ll also need this printable: Diagram of the Moon’s Phases.
Watch The Video
https://youtu.be/Gt61R_ja_uk
Required Materials
- printable
- 8 Oreo cookies
- knife, popsicle stick, or other scraping tool
- plate
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1
Use the Diagram of the phases of the moon printable to review the moon’s phases.
Step 2
Remove the tops from all eight of the Oreos and set aside.
Step 3
Return to the Diagram of the phases of the moon printable and use it as a guide as you scrape the cream off the Oreos to duplicate each of the moon’s phases. The cream corresponds to the white portion of the circle on the printable – the visible part of the moon during each phase. The cookie corresponds to the black portion – the invisible part of the moon during each phase. It also helps to arrange the cookies in a circle on the plate to mimic the circular arrangement of the moon’s phases on the printable.
Step 4
If you don’t have Oreos, or would rather do this project in written format, simply draw eight circles on a piece of paper in the same pattern as the printable. Use crayons, markers, pens, or pencils to color the moon’s phases.
Step 5
Want to keep learning? Use this Monthly moon chart printable to draw the phases of the moon from your own nightly observations over the course of a month!