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:
Exploring the Moon: Life Support Systems
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Mission: Apollo (Earth's Moon)
Short Description: A future lunar base will have to be a self-contained habitat with all the life support systems necessary for the survival of humans, animals and plants. In this series of activities, the students will design and build models of nine life support systems that are crucial to successful human settlement of the moon.
Exploring the Moon: Reaping Rocks
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Mission: Apollo (Earth's Moon), GRAIL (Earth's Moon)
Short Description: Students make predictions about the origin of lunar rocks by collecting, describing and classifying rocks from their neighborhood.
Golfball Phases and Eclipses
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Earth, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students explore the dynamics of lunar phases to develop an understanding of the relative positions of our Moon, Earth and sun that cause the phases of the Moon as viewed from Earth. Using a golf ball glowing under the ultraviolet light of a "blacklight" makes it easier to see the actual phase of the Moon.
Introduction to Photogeologic Mapping
Topic: Landforms
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Participants observe how a planet can be used to produce geologic maps while identifying rock units and placement of units in a time sequence.
Kinesthetic Lunar Rotation/ Revolution
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: This kinesthetic activity is designed to give participants a first hand look at the movement of the Moon.
Mars Pathfinder: Egg Drop and Landing
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, Pluto
Mission: Mars Pathfinder (Mars)
Short Description: Design, build, and test a system for landing on the surface of Mars without breaking the cargo, an egg.
Modeling the Solar System
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: This PDF contains four lessons:
1) Modeling Orbits in the Solar System. This lesson models the orbital distances between the planets and shows that the solar system is mostly empty space.
2) Modeling Sizes of Planets. This lesson compares the relative sizes of the planets to those of familiar fruits and vegetables. It also uses size to calculate density and planet composition.
3) Looking Inside Planets. This lesson involves modeling the interior structures of the planets and shows that the solid cores of the gas giants are similar in size to the Earth or Venus.
4) Search for A Habitable Planet. This lesson looks at the characteristics of planets that make them livable, their temperature, and compositions of atmosphere and surface instead of size
or orbit.
Mud Splat Craters
Topic: Planetary Surface Processes
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon, Pluto
Short Description: Observe crater formation in mud to introduce the idea of fluidized craters as seen on the surface of Mars.
Observing the Moon
Grade Level: K-4
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students observe the Moon's changing appearance and features.
On the Moon
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4, 5-8, 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Mission: LCROSS (Earth's Moon), Lunar Recon Orbiter (Earth's Moon)
Short Description: This guide has six activities that bring engineering and NASA's Moon missions to life. Some are applicable for elementary-aged students, and one is for high school students, but most are targeted for middle school students.
Challenge 1: Launch It
Design an air-powered rocket that can hit a distant target.
Challenge 2: Touchdown
Create a platform that can safely cushion "astronauts" when they land on a table near you.
Challenge 3: Roving the Moon
Build a rubber band-powered car that can scramble across the room.
Challenge 4: Heavy Lifting
Build a cardboard crane and see how heavy a load it can lift.
Challenge 5: On Target
Modify a paper cup so it can zip down a line and drop a marble on a target.
Challenge 6: Feel the Heat
Heat things up by building a solar hot water heater.
