Moon Giant

8th Grade Science

Ken Andersen & Victoria Mattos

Problem Identified: Students did not have a strong conception of how the moon changed in a regular cycle of phases.

Hypothesis: If students record the phases of the moon each day using the site Moon Giant then they will be able to recognize, predict and construct the phases of the moon as measured by improvement in student performance from pre-unit assessment to unit test.

Data Collection: Student performance increased an average of 88% from the pre-unit assessment to the unit test.

Actionable Step: The Do Now for one month (one complete moon cycle) was to look up the day’s moon phase and draw it in a written Moon Journal. At the end of the month, students reviewed the full journal and identified the cycle of phases.

Overall Findings/Impact: The Moon Journal exercise supported the instruction in the moon phases and particularly helped students understand the cyclic pattern, which is an important cross-cutting concept in studying scientific phenomena.