The Moon: Gateway to the Solar System

A Teacher's Guide with Activities for Earth and Space Sciences

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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About This Book

The activities in this book will help students learn about the Moon. Each activity may take one class period, or it may take up to eight or more, depending on how difficult it is and how ready the students are.

"Activity Matrices" are included to help teachers find the science and math skills used in each activity. These activities help students solve problems, work together, and communicate their ideas. Each activity has teacher pages and pages for students to write on and fill out.

The teacher pages explain the purpose of the activity and give background information, along with the answers. They also list related pages from the "Teacher's Guide." After that, you'll find tips for getting ready, ideas for classroom use, ways to wrap up the lesson, and extra challenges. Words that appear in bold can be found in the Glossary at the back of the book.

The student pages include a purpose statement, important vocabulary words, a list of materials, step-by-step instructions, questions with room for answers, and charts. The vocabulary words are also explained in the Glossary. Materials are listed in the order students will use them, and each one appears in bold in the instructions so students remember what to grab.

A note about measurements: Most activities use metric units (like centimeters and grams). A few use English units (like cups) when listing everyday items such as pans or measuring cups.

This book was made for students in upper elementary through high school, and works especially well with the Lunar Sample Disk (see page iv).

This book includes:

• Information on the Lunar Sample Disk
• Activity Matrices showing skills and standards
• A Teacher's Guide
• A "Moon ABCs" Fact Sheet
• A "Rock ABCs" Fact Sheet
• A chart showing progress in Moon science
• 17 hands-on activities
• A resource section for each unit
• A Glossary
• A list of NASA resources for teachers

The Teacher's Guide section, called "The Moon: Gateway to the Solar System" (pages 1–16), gives background information about the Moon. It tells the story of the Moon's rocky history and explains how scientists figure out that story. Students might enjoy reading this section too.

Important facts about the Moon are found on the "Moon ABCs" and "Rock ABCs" pages. These pages got their name because they cover the most basic information. The "Progress in Lunar Science Chart" shows what scientists have learned about the Moon from 1959 to 1997.

The activities are grouped into three units: Pre-Apollo, Learning from Apollo, and The Future. These roughly match three time periods: before the Lunar Sample Disk arrives at your school (Pre-Apollo), while it's at your school (Learning from Apollo), and after you've sent it back to NASA (The Future).

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About the Lunar Sample Disk

Legacy of Apollo

The Moon rocks and regolith (the layer of broken rock and dust covering the Moon) collected during the Apollo missions are a real, touchable piece of history from the U.S. Apollo Space Program. NASA shares a small amount of this material from space with classrooms through the Lunar Sample Loan Program.

Lunar Sample Loan Program

Six small samples of Moon rock and regolith are sealed inside a clear plastic disk about 15 centimeters wide. NASA mails these disks to teachers for loans of one to two weeks. Along with the disk, teachers receive this book, Exploring the Moon, a set of Moon picture slides (explained on page v), and photos and descriptions of the six samples.

How to Schedule a Disk

Before borrowing Moon material, teachers must attend a training session about safety rules and how to handle the samples properly. This is the same training needed to borrow the Meteorite Sample Disk. Then, teachers send a written request to a NASA Educator Resource Center at least one month before they want to borrow it. Check page 146 of this book for contact information for the resource center nearest you.

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About the Slide Set

The Collection

A set of thirty-six slides was created to go along with the activities in this book. Each slide comes with a detailed caption. The slides cover what people knew about the Moon before Apollo (learned through telescopes and other observations), the Apollo missions themselves, astronauts working on the Moon's surface, the Moon's highlands and maria (its two main types of land), how the Moon was formed, and exciting plans for future Moon exploration.

How to Obtain a Copy

Getting a copy of the slides is easy. You can order them from the Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE) in Ohio, or from a NASA Educator Resource Center. If you can't visit a center in person, you're welcome to call. Page 146 has addresses and phone numbers for CORE and the Educator Resource Centers.

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The Moon: Gateway to the Solar System

By G. Jeffrey Taylor, PhD

Teacher's Guide

When astronauts dug into the Moon's surface during the Apollo missions, they were doing much more than just scooping up dry, dark dirt. In a way, they were like time travelers. The Moon rocks and soil they brought back hold important clues about how Earth and the Moon were formed, when and how they first melted, how strongly and how often space rocks crashed into them long ago, and even clues about the history of the Sun.

Most of this information is a key part of Earth's story — but scientists can't learn it by studying rocks found on Earth. That's because Earth is so geologically active (meaning it's always changing) that it has erased much of its own history. Those clues have disappeared over billions of years because of mountains forming, volcanoes erupting, and rock wearing away through weather and water. Even Earth's moving tectonic plates (the huge pieces of rock that make up Earth's outer shell) have helped erase the evidence.

The Moon, Front and Back

One photo shows the side of the Moon that faces Earth, taken through a telescope at Lick Observatory in California. Another photo, taken during the Apollo 16 mission, shows mostly the far side of the Moon — the side we can't normally see from Earth — except for some dark areas on the left edge that we can barely spot from home.

These photos show the Moon's two main types of land clearly. The highlands are light-colored and covered with many craters (holes made by space rocks crashing into the surface). You can see the highlands especially well in the photo of the far side. The maria are darker and smoother; they formed when melted rock, called lava, flowed out and filled in low areas.

One Moon mystery is why there are fewer maria on the far side than on the near side. Also notice how many craters crowd closely together on the far side. These giant holes are like a record book of the Moon's early history, showing a time when space rocks pounded its surface again and again. This same bombardment likely happened to young Earth, too.