OpenSciEd Unit 8.4 · Lesson 08 · 8.A
Look for: Our model predicted that the Moon would get d…
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
8.A Evaluate the limitations of our system model predicting what we would see during a lunar eclipse.
What to look / listen for
While students are sharing ideas with a partner, listen for them to mention ideas such as the following:
- Our model predicted that the Moon would get darker; it did get dimmer, but not exactly how we thought.
- Our model predicted that the darkness or shadow would move from one side of the Moon to the other; it did.
- Our model predicted that the eclipse would only happen during a full Moon; it did.
- Our model predicted that the Moon would not be visible when the Moon was totally in Earth’s shadow, but it was visible (just dimmer and reddish!).
- Our model did not predict that the Moon would turn reddish.
What to do
While you circulate listening to partner talk, consider taking note when you hear disagreement or bewilderment and ask, Would you share that idea during our whole-class discussion so we can all wrestle with it together? If students struggle to make connections between their predictions and the lunar eclipse images, refer partnerships back to the manipulatives they used to construct their physical models of an eclipse. Guide them in modeling the relative positions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon that coincide with the images they’re analyzing. For each image, ask, Is this how you expected the Moon to look? Why or why not?