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:
Oreo Moon Phases
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students model the order and appearance of the phases of the Moon using cookies and frosting.
Photogeologic Mapping of the Moon
Topic: Planetary Surface Processes
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Participants use photo geologic mapping to analyze images of the Moon and understand the concept of superposition.
Regolith Formation
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Participants model and observe the formation of regolith on the lunar surface.
Seeing the Moon: Using Light to Investigate the Moon
Topic: Light and Spectra
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Mission: Chandrayaan-1 (Earth's Moon), Lunar Recon Orbiter (Earth's Moon)
Short Description: Through the hands-on inquiry based activities, students experiment with light and color, collect and analyze authentic data from rock samples using a reflectance spectrometer, map the rock types of the Moon, and develop theories of the Moon's history.
Size and Shape Imaged
Topic: Life
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Short Description: This activity contains a series of images of very small things. Students will view the images, hear the information from a script, and make some observations and connections. They will see Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images of small living organisms and rock surfaces. Then, using their new perspective, they will view unidentified samples and speculate about the surfaces and the origins of the features in the images. The goal is to get the students to think about looking at very small objects and to realize
that observations are a great way to start scientific research.
Solar System Exploration Mission Timeline Activity
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Our Solar System, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Meteors & Meteorites, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Dwarf Planets, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon, Europa
Mission: ARTEMIS (Earth's Moon), Cassini (Saturn), Dawn (Dwarf Planets), DSN (Our Solar System), GRAIL (Earth's Moon), Hubble (Beyond Our Solar System), Huygens (Saturn), IBEX (Our Solar System), InSight (Mars), Juno (Jupiter), Lunar Recon Orbiter (Earth's Moon), MESSENGER (Mercury), NEAR Shoemaker (Asteroids), New Horizons (Dwarf Planets), Phoenix (Mars), Stardust (Comets), Venus Express (Venus), Viking 01 (Mars), Viking 02 (Mars), Voyager 1 (Our Solar System), Voyager 2 (Our Solar System)
Short Description: Extreme Exploration -- Solar System Exploration Missions Timeline involves students in the wide range of mission events of 2008-2015+. Using the Solar System Exploration Timeline poster as a guide, student teams research assigned missions and record events such as launch and landing, etc. It is expected that students will be drawn into the excitement of mission events as they follow along with NASA's Solar System Exploration -- past, current, and future.
Space Math: LRO Makes a Temperature Map of the Lunar South Pole
Topic: Math
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Mission: Lunar Recon Orbiter (Earth's Moon)
Short Description: Students use the published LRO temperature map to study the scale of the south polar region, the sizes of its craters and estimate the volume of water-ice that may be present in Shackleton Crater.
The Drake Equation -- Estimating the Number of Civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: Students estimate the number of civilizations in the galaxy by first estimating the number of craters on the Moon and then by performing estimates of multiple-variable systems culminating in the use of the Drake Equation.
The Oldest Lunar Rocks
Topic: Math
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Earth's Moon
Short Description: A list of the ages of the oldest lunar rock samples is grouped into families with about the same average ages to estimate the age of the lunar mare.
The Penny Moon and Quarter Earth
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Earth, Earth's Moon
Short Description: The students use a penny and a quarter to model the Moon's rotation on its axis and revolution around the Earth, and demonstrate that the Moon keeps the same face toward the Earth.
