science writing prompts earth, sun, and moon copyright 2013 matthew cline

Copyright 2013 Matthew Cline

Science Writing Prompts

Earth, Sun, and Moon


Note to teachers:

• I use these slides after I have taught the lesson. These writing prompts are useful in assessing student’s abilities to think beyond the basic facts and apply what they have learned to real life concepts

• These writing prompts are a portion of a larger unit that will be uploaded soon!


Directions

• Observe the following animation and answer the writing prompts.



• Explain what system this is a model of. Give as many facts as you can think of that you have learned about this system.



• Explain why the moon appears to change shape in the night sky over a month’s time. You may find it useful to draw a model of this phenomenon to help explain.



• We use models to represent things so that we can understand them. However, these models have limitations that keep them from being 100% accurate. Explain some limitations that this model has.



• Why is the same side of the moon a light color and the opposite side dark the whole way around the earth?



Explain how this phenomenon occurs and why only a small portion of people on earth actually see this total eclipse.



• Explain what would happen if the moon were on the other side of the earth.



• Explain why we don’t have lunar and solar eclipses every month.


Ocean tides


How does the moon effect the ocean tides?

Why do we experience high and low tides twice daily?

Explain the two types of high tides and how they work.

Describe some limitations to this model.

science writing prompts earth, sun, and moon copyright 2013 matthew cline

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