Week 1: Earth Moon System

Week 1: Earth Moon System

1. What did you do in lab today? This week in lab we answered a handful of questions related to common misconceptions of how humans interpret the seasons, Moon, Earth, etc. We then got to model in groups how we thought the Moon and Earth rotated along with discussing how the Solar and Lunar Eclipse.

2. What was the big question? Three questions discussed in class along with my answers prior to whole class discussion: 1. How the phases of the moon occur? (The Moon covers the sun while it rotates around Earth.) 2. What causes the seasons? (The seasons are caused by how far away the Earth is from the Sun.)  3. What causes a lunar eclipse? (A line of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, but I'm unsure it what order.)

3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? I was not present in Thursday lecture due to an away volleyball game, but I did receive notes from Isabelle Sneath! All the planets are on the same geometric plane, EXCEPT Pluto, therefore Pluto is not a planet. It was considered a planet for a long time because it was the only planet discovered by an American.

Textbook: 

1. What did you learn? The concepts Heliocentrism vs Geocentrism are new to me and I found them very interesting. In the early years humans thought the Earth was the center of the solar system and everything revolved around it. Later on, Copernicus found that the Earth indeed was not the center, the sun is. The key takeaway assisted me in better understanding that Geocentrism is the Earth at the center and Heliocentrism is the Sun at the center. 

2. What was the most helpful? The videos and visual pictures were the most helpful for me to have a literal picture in my head what Equinoxes, Solstice, Eclipses, etc. I am a visual learner therefore these types of resources are huge for me. Additionally I enjoyed the lesson ideas included at the end to help me with the teacher mindset of teaching these ideas.

3. What do you need more information on? I would like to learn more about the tropic lines or more so build a deeper understanding. I know that the Northern tropic is Cancer and the Southern tropic Capricorn along with the idea that direction of shadows change due to where one is at.

5. What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have? This is not necessarily a concern, but I would like to talk about the NDSL Strandmap to build a better understanding of it. 

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