Telescopes

During our Space and Technology unit one of our 1st topics was telescopes.

We started by watching a video clip on 2 types of telescopes - reflecting and refracting.

I also like this video on the basic types of telescopes (watch the 1st 4 min.). *It's an advertisement for a company but it's safe for classroom viewing - no pop-ups etc.

Next we compared the telescopes using a cut and paste activity.

Students have been watching the progress of the James Webb telescope since the launch on Dec. 24, 2021.  It reached its new home recently so we continued the lesson by watching part of What's next for the Webb Telescope:

Students researched the differences between the Hubble & Webb telescopes and made their own graphic organizers.

To wrap up, we had a class discussion to review our learning goals (SC.8.E.5.1 SC.8.E.5.10).  We emphasized the distances in space, mirrors (refracting), size, the type of discoveries and cost.

Graphing Tides

I read this article in the paper this morning to my students.  It was a good review of our tides lesson (Cornell Notes, Cut & Paste Activity *Google Drag & Drop for online students). 

• Spring tides don't have anything to do with the Spring season. 
• A spring tide means that high tides are higher and low tides are lower than average because the gravitational pull of the Sun is “added” to the pull of the Moon on Earth, causing the oceans to bulge  more than normal. 

I asked students what they thought "normal" was.  No one knew, so we looked up the January tide chart for our area and made a data table.

*Only the 1st day of each moon phase is recorded

Next I used Excel to make a graph and asked students to look for trends.  

1. What was the highest high tide? 
2. What was the lowest high tide? 
3. What is the difference (in ft.) between the highest and lowest high tides?
4. When was the last spring tide (date and moon phase)? 

Extentions: 

• Have student make the table & graph as a lab activity instead of a warm-up discussion 
• Graph the AM & PM low tides and identify Neap tides *use this as a exit ticket/formative assessment 
• Graph all the data for the month and identify moon phases and Spring/Neap tides

This was a good review of tides and working with charts and graphs. It also allowed students to apply their learning to their everyday lives.  

ANSWERS

1. Jan. 1, 6.1 ft. (AM)
2. Jan. 10, 3.5 ft. (AM)
3. 6.1 ft. - 3.5 ft. = 2.6 ft. *the article predicted our tides would be 1-2 ft. higher
4. Jan. 1, New Moon