Moon Activities
The lessons below are teacher-favorite lessons focused on Earth's Moon. For more search options or to search by other science target, missions and other criteria, visit our Fast Lesson Finder. You can also search by curriculum standards on our popular Curriculum Standards Quilts.
Earth's Moon Lessons:
Alka-Seltzer Rockets
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Using baking soda and vinegar, propel an object across the floor to introduce the idea of how things move through space.
Conflicting Theories for the Origin of the Moon
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: There are different views on the origin of the Moon. Investigation results can be interpreted in different ways which are sometimes conflicting. Critical thinking and matching evidence with theories are skills that are highly valued in science. (You will need copies of the "Four theories for the Origin of the Moon and Fourteen Pieces of Evidence" for this activity. Click here to access this material.
Conflicting Theories for the Origin of the Moon (Supplementary Material)
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: There are different views on the origin of the Moon. Investigation results can be interpreted in different ways which are sometimes conflicting. Critical thinking and matching evidence with theories are skills that are highly valued in science.
Dance of the Moon and Oceans
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Earth, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students discover how the Moon's gravitational pull causes the level of the ocean to rise and fall twice a day along most coastlines through this kinesthetic activity, and consider what the Earth's tides might have been like if there was no Moon.
Differentiation Demonstration: Moon
Grade Level: K-4, 5-8
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students observe a model of planetary differentiation, the organization of planetary interiors into layers of different densities. Materials of different densities are mixed in a bottle and allowed to separate into layers. The simple model illustrates how the Moon's interior became organized into a distinct core, mantle and outer crust from the debris of the Giant Impact.
Does the Moon Rotate?
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Sun, Earth, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students make a three-dimensional model of the Earth and Moon. Using the sun's light, they discover that the Moon does rotate in the same amount of time it takes to make one orbit.
Earth, Earth's Moon, Mars Balloons
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4, 5-8
Body: Earth, Mars, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Curiosity about our place in space and whether we can travel to distant worlds beyond our own depends upon understanding the size, distance and other characteristics of moons and planets in our solar system. For this activity, students will construct a balloon scale model to understand the relative sizes of the Earth, Earth's Moon and Mars in relation to each other and their relative distance to each other at this scale. They will use this model to predict distances and reflect on how scientists use models to construct explanations through the scientific process. In this collection, this activity introduces the concept of models, which will be built upon in subsequent lessons, as well as the first set of Earth/Mars comparisons.
Earth-Moon Activity
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Earth, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students work in pairs using different-sized spherical objects to represent Earth and the Moon. They use the diameter of the objects to establish this scale.
Exploring Lunar Phases with a Daytime Moon
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Earth's Moon
Short Description: This activity creates a model with the real Moon and sun in the sky to help participants discover the real reason for the lunar phases.
Exploring the Moon
Body: Earth's Moon
Mission: SMART-1 (Earth's Moon)
Short Description: Background and Activities to help elementary to high-school students explore our Moon from Pre-Apollo times to the future.
