During our 7th grade Astronomy Unit in science,
we covered the theories of earth‘s creation, the moons and its phases,
astronomy technology and life in space (gravity, nebulas). Most importantly, we covered the happenings of
a whole revolution around the sun (laws of the interactions of the (sun, earth,
and moon).
I really enjoyed this unit because I learnt a lot of new
things, but I also liked the way the Unit was planned/set up. First, we started
with the key concepts like revolutions, rotations, satellites etc. Then, we focused
on the moon and its phases. Next, we learnt about the earth, sun and moon: how
they affect each other; tides, eclipses, phases and phenomena. We learnt about space exploration and its
costs. Last, but definitely not least, we had to write an essay and make our
own planet. Most people wouldn’t favor writing an the essay, but I really liked
it because I got to show what I know about money and how much it value. I also
I got to debate and argue my point of view on space exploration and its costs. The project was a fun way to finish up our unit
- kind of like the cherry on a banana Sunday. The project allowed students to
show their creativity and to use their knowledge to make their planet realistic
and find a way to have everything making perfect scientific sense.
This project was a cool learning experience. I really loved learning why some phenomena happen. For example, I learnt about apogees and perigees of the moon, which I actually used in my day in one instance. On may 5th my mother stated “WOW!! Look at the moon it is so big and bright!” Then I asked, “Do you know why its so big and bright” and she was absolutely clueless so I enlightened her. I told her “it is at its perigee around the earth, which is when the moon is at its closest point around earth. The reason why perigees happen is because the moons orbit around earth isn’t a perfect circle as many people perceive it to be. It is actually an oval making some points in the orbit closer or further from earth. The moon is so bright because as the moon orbits earth it changes from being between the earth and the sun, and being behind the earth. When the moon is behind the earth the suns rays reflect on to the moon, which then brightens it up and reflects on earth making the moon as bright as could be.
All in all, I loved this unit because of the activities and
because I liked learning about the
mysteries of space.
