This webquest is meant to be completed in the course of 3 or 4 days. Students will be able to "model the position and motion of the earth in the solar system and will explain the role of relative position and motion in determining sequence of the phases of the moon. [They will] explain the sequence of the phases of the moon" (Cox, "4th Grade Science Curriculum", 2006, p. 5).
In Step 1 of the Process, students will whisper a secret message to the teacher, "The Moon seems to change." The teacher should then help them access the e-book, Faces of the moon by Bob Crelin (2009). If the teacher would like to start off by reading a book to the entire class, "The Moon seems to change" by Franklyn M. Branley and Barbara & Ed Emberley (Jul 24, 1987), or one like it, is a good place to start. These e-books are listed on the citation page. The e-books will be beneficial for all students, but especially those who need help reading the material. There is an option for students to have the e-book read to them. The teacher may also provide introductory books written in Spanish for English Language Learners such as, Heller's and Hudson's Como la luna recobró su forma. Citation for this book can be found on the citation page. Both the electronic book and Spanish book options allow diverse learners to have access to the content that will be taught in this lesson. For homework, students will practice making observations of their own. The teacher should remind students that making observations is what scientists do when they look at, listen to, smell, taste and touch something. Scientists do not make inferences or judgments when they are observing. The teacher may also give students options of how they would like to show what they observed. Students may hand-draw their observations of the moon, or they may illustrate using a computer program such as Microsoft Paint. The electronic illustrations can either be printed for the students, or it can be saved to remain as an electronic file if the student is choosing to make an electronic version of the Moon mini-book. Students may also wish to take a picture of the moon, but the teacher may wish to caution them that their picture may not turn out well due to the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The teacher should make sure students have accurately drawn, or represented an image of the moon and she may either want to keep the drawing or she may direct students to place their drawings in their Mission Folder when she gives them the folder at the start of Step 2. In Step 2, students receive their Mission Folder. In order to get this folder, the teacher adds to the atmosphere of intrigue by receiving a whispered, secret message from the student, "The Moon has 4 main phases." The folder given to students should contain worksheets that ask students to collect information from websites and other research locations throughout the process. At this step, students should visit http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/Birthday/birthdayphases.html and learn that the moon has 4 main phases and additional in-between phases. At the bottom of the this webpage, developed by educators from the University of Montana, students have an opportunity to take a quiz based on what they have learned at this website. The teacher may leave this option up to the students to decide, or she may require that students take this quiz and use the outcome as a formative assessment for the lesson. To give the quiz independently of the webquest, the teacher and/or the students will find the quiz at http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_system_level2/moonlight.html. At the conclusion of this step, students should begin brainstorming the information they have learned and think about the main ideas they want to include in their mini-books and how they want that information organized. They should work together in their groups on this pre-writing activity and check in with the teacher so that she can guide students and even model how to organize thoughts for an outline, should any student require this intervention. In between steps 2 and 3, there is a message which further extends the atmosphere of intrigue and a secret agency. Students are shown an image of the 1st quarter moon and told that the moon is continuing to disappear. At this point in the process, students are aware that the moon is not disappearing, but the message and suspenseful tone of the text, provides students with a sense of urgency to solve this mystery and should encourage discussion among groups about the name of this phase of the moon and what is truly happening in terms of the moon revolving around the Earth. In Step 3, students will research the Moon's movement, both its rotation and revolution around Earth. Students may either click on the image of the computer or on the text "the computer" to navigate to the website "The Moon: The moon travels around Earth" which can be found at http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/moon/facts.htm. After completing the provided worksheet, students may watch an embedded YouTube video which shows the moon orbiting Earth. There is no sound, but there is text that reinforces what students have learned about the Moon's rotation and orbit. At the end of this step in the process, students will make a list of key vocabulary words and definitions they feel their audience should know. The teacher will want to closely monitor students at this stage. Some students will either want to make a very short list, unsure of what words to include, or else, they will have too many words, for the same reason but wanting to make sure that no important words are left off the list. The teacher will need to guide students in making their decisions. She may also need to provide direction instruction for some students who may or may not know how to look up words in the dictionary. Students who are not able to use the classroom dictionaries may need to be provided alternative resources. This could include "talking spell checkers and electronic dictionaries [which] can help a poor speller select or identify appropriate words and correct spelling errors during the process of writing and proofreading" (Stanberry & Raskind, 2009). In Step 4, students will research what the moon is made of and what is on the surface of the moon. They will then begin writing their first draft of their mini-book. Students should have a copy of the rubric located on the Evaluation page so they can make sure they are writing to excellent standards. This is the students' final research opportunity and one which the teacher can take advantage of to ensure that students have learned all the content needed to successfully write their mini-book about the moon, why it seems to change shape, what the moon is made of and any other interesting or pertinent information students would like to include in their books. After completing this research activity, student should begin writing their first draft of their book and then move on to revising and editing. |
Possible E-books |