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What is the Moon Project? |
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The MOON Project electronically links together approximately a dozen students, one of whom, the GroupGuide, is a collegiate pre-service teacher and the rest are elementary or middle schoolers in states such as Massachusetts, Texas, Alaska, California, Indiana, Arizona and New Mexico (on the Navajo Reservation) in the United States and from other countries such as Australia, England, Finland, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Ukraine.
The children observe the Moon for 10 weeks and for the last six of those 10 weeks they write short essays of about 200 words each about lunar observations they've made, patterns they found when comparing the observations made by children around the world, and explanations for those patterns. Their essays are posted to the Internet for feedback from their GroupGuide. Their polished essays are compiled and sent to all children in their group, via the Internet. The MOON Project promotes the learning of science by incorporating writing-to-learn strategies.
The children's identities remain anonymous and they are further protected by a strong firewall. All teachers have access to all of their children's writing, so they can see what their students write and what is written to them.
Each semester several hundred children in grades 4-8 and pre-service teachers participate in these discussion groups. There is no charge to teachers or students for their involvement in the MOON Project. Teachers are always welcome to have a small handful or all of their students join the MOON Project by contacting Dr. Smith, the MOON Project Director. |
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008 10:11 |
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The MOON Project proceeds in two phases. The first phase: For six weeks students in grades 4-8 observe the Moon each day, record their observations and discuss their findings in class in order to learn, through personal inquiry, patterns in the Moon's behavior in their own community. The second phase: In the second phase students are placed in Internet communities of 10-12 children from different locations in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres plus one college student who is preparing to be a teacher. Children post an essay about their lunar observations on three specific days selected for when the Moon is a waxing cresent, first quarter and waxing gibbous. Students within each group organize these worldwide observations and look for global patterns in the Moon's behavior. Then students share essays about global lunar patterns they've found; and finally they write a third essay to explain one of the lunar patterns revealed by this process. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 January 2009 16:12 |
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Tuesday, 13 January 2009 21:32 |
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The Teacher Handbook is a comprehensive resource for teachers who wish to have their students participate in the MOON Project. This handbook will guide new teachers step-by-step from Day 1 to completion of the project. Please download the attached "Teacher Handbook."
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 January 2009 21:41 |
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