Map to National Science Education Standards.
The Faces of the Moon Teacher’s Guide is a full classroom unit, designed to teach the lunar phases using the book The Faces of the Moon. The teacher’s guide Includes a fun, hands-on lab activity recommended for 4th-8th grades. A Moon Gazers wheel is also available for purchase.
In the On the Moon activity guide, NASA and PBS’s Design Squad team up to inspire a new generation of engineers. The guide offers six hands-on challenges that bring engineering and NASA's moon missions to life for kids at events, and in school, and afterschool programs. NASA and DESIGN SQUAD® have developed an online workshop for educators and afterschool leaders to build their skills and confidence in guiding kids through engineering activities like those found in the On the Moon Educator Guide.
In Moon Quest, students work in teams to learn more about myths about the Moon and to discover the scientific facts that underlie them.
The Challenger Learning Center offers To the Moon, Mars, and Beyond e-mission for grades 3-5. With training, teachers can access lesson plans and run a simulated rescue mission, involving lunar and martian bases, in their classrooms. During the mission, students connect live to a Flight Director with the help of computers, the Internet, and video conferencing equipment.
Explore! To the Moon and Beyond with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter offers a variety of inquiry based, standards-aligned lesson plans. Designed for the informal learning environment, activities about the Moon’s features and NASA’s plan for exploration and future outposts are appropriate for the classroom.
SkyTellers: Lunar Phases was created for informal learning environments, but several of the standards-aligned activities are appropriate for the K-4 classroom. Students observe the phases of the Moon and learn the names of the phases.
Family Space Day: Moon! offers a suite of hands-on activities designed to help children, ages 5-8 - and their families - explore lunar phases, the Moon’s surface, and the environment and geology of the Moon. Other resources, such as books, games, and coloring sheets are presented. Created for the informal learning environment, these activities are not aligned to science education standards, but they address several K-4 standards.
The Earth's Moon chapter of the Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground collection of hands-on astronomy activities engages students in grades 2-6 in a variety of modeling, observing, and drawing activities. Phases, tides, and the Moon’s motions are explored.