Week of September 30th

 Lab Questions, Initial thoughts:

1. How the phases of the moon occur?

    Through the positions of the moon and sun. The sun covers the moon to make different phases. 

2. What causes seasons?

    The seasons are caused by the position of the earth as it orbits around the sun.     

3. What causes a lunar eclipse?

    A lunar eclipse is when the moon is fully in front of the sun.

During lab we talked about the cause of lunar eclipse. I learned that in my initial thought I was describing a solar eclipse instead of a lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is when the earth is in between the moon and the sun causing the moon to dim very low maybe even looking orangish. We then talked about what it looks like with the earth and sun's position to show summer and winter (seasons) in certain places on earth.  When the northern hemisphere (Iowa) is tilted towards the sun, the rays are at the highest, it is summer. When the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, the rays are low, it is winter. We then discussed the difference of Heliocentric and Geocentric, as geocentric (earth-centered) was once believed that the world was like, and soon realize the position of the earth and sun is heliocentric (sun centered). Another topic we talked about was the equator and tropic lines. I remembered this topic from past knowledge but got reminded the positions of the tropic of cancer (northern hemisphere) and the tropic of capricorn (southern hemisphere). The last topic we went over was winter and summer solstice, which represents the shortest and longest day of the year.

After reading the pressbook, I got reminded of the phases of the moon that I have forgotten over the years such as the new moon (moon's face not visible from earth), crescent moon (between new and quarter moon), quarter moon (can see half of the moon), gibbous (between quarter and full moon), and full moon (all of the moon is visible). I thought these faces of the moon was a good reminder and helpful! Lastly, I learned that the earth distance away from the sun doesn't cause seasons and the tropic lines, equator, arctic circle all represent the areas of specific direct sunlight. No need for more information this week and no questions!

During lecture we started with talking about an example of a time of the day where we would see the moon and the sun, and what phase the moon would be during that time. For example we talked about 7am when the sun rises from the east, and in the example the moon was setting in the west. We learned that the phase of the moon at 7 am would be a full moon as the moon would have the full light from the sun. The questions for this week, How do the moon phases occur? What causes seasons? What causes an eclipse?. We went into the conversation and talked about the google form we filled out for the week. As a class we talked about areas we need to teach and areas people understood. We then talked about the shadows during different seasons, ans how through the winter we have longer shadows.  We then talked about how earth is closest to the earth during January (winter) which may be hard to understand for some students as normally when we are closest to heat, we should be warmer.  Lastly, we ended lecture with a quiz that went over what we talked about during the week. One of the questions we talked about is what happens if the moon is right above you at 12pm, what phase would the moon be at? The phase of the moon will be at new moon. 

Photos:

seasons

seasons

B is correct