Tech Savvy Teacher

Dear fellow administrators and teachers, welcome to Tech Savy teacher! Recently in my classroom, I planned an activity for my 6th grade class that was convenient and easy for both the students and myself. My class explored the phases of the moon using a program called Stellarium. The learning objective for this activity can be found on the Utah Core Curriculum website under the category of Science. It is found in standard 1, objective 2.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Stellarium, I will explain what this program is and how to utilize it in your classroom. Stellarium is a scientific program used to explore the various parts of the solar system. For this particular assignment, the students observed the phases of the moon, which take place over the course of a month. However, depending on your particular solar system course objective, you could use this program to explore the planets, constellations and their corresponding zodiac signs.

The posted pictures provide clear illustrations as to the steps I will explain. To locate an object, in this case the moon, you click on the small bottom box entitled, "Search for Object." A display box will pop up as shown. Once the object is located, by pressing "Shift" and "Page up" on the keyboard the program will zoom in on the object. At this point you must click on the "Configuration" display box. After clicking the Date & Time tab the date can be adjusted to a desired time. This allows for students to easily see the moon over the course of the month. (Examples are displayed) If students desire they can change the location in the "Configuration" display box and study the moon from other views.

This program is beneficial to teachers and students alike. One advantage of this program is that it is time efficient. Rather than assigning your students to go out every night, draw the moon and record their observations, this program enables them to perform the same task in a fraction of the time. The students are able to scroll through each day of the month and have the ability to see all of the phases of the moon in a matter of minutes. Not only is this program time efficient, but it also helps students to get more excited about the content they learn. Observing the moon every single night could prove to be a mundane task for the students, thus, this program keeps their attention, helps them to focus. It also provides an opportunity to for all to see the moon regardless of weather or community. An additional benefit that this program provides is helping students to view the phases of the moon in different locations around the world. A final advantage is that it makes the process of moon exploration more personal to the student.