Moon Phases and Seasons Review

Today in class we worked on reviewing moon phases and seasons.  I gave a quick 7-minute direct teach over both topics just as a review before we got started.

Moon phases is one of those topics as a science teacher that makes you just want to pull your hair out.  I’ve taught it every which way that I know how to teach it, yet there are still a few students that simply can’t grasp the concept in full.  We’ve built models, done computer simulations, manipulated cards sorts, filled out graphic organizers, memorized them in order, and we’ve talked about it way more than any other concept this year.  Nearly all of the students can recite the phases back to me, but when we start applying the concept in higher quality questions then all bets are off.  My partner says that they understand it this year far better than in the year’s past, but it’s just one of those things that I feel like everyone should understand.  I just think it’s one of those concepts that you’re always going to have some stragglers with.

I had a student ask me the other day why we need to learn the phases of the moon and I felt like I had a pretty good response.  I told him that sure he probably has an app on his phone for it, but that one day he’s going to look up and wonder why.  I told him it may not be as an 8th grader and that it may not even be as a student, but that one day somewhere down the road in life he’s going to wonder why the sky changes at night.  He seemed to buy in to that answer.   Hopefully he’ll know the answer when he does finally ask.