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The Earth's moon appears to change shape a little bit each night. The shape grows from a thin crescent to a round ball, then shrinks back to a sliver. These differing shapes are called the "phases of the moon."
The moon doesn't change its physical shape, of course. Phases shift as the moon orbits around the Earth.
It takes a little less than one month for the moon to revolve around the Earth one time. As the moon makes its journey, half of it is always lit by the Sun. From Earth, we see different portions of the sunlit half-the various phases of the moon.
Mission: Learn about the phases of the moon.
Experiment:
Step 1.
Turn the flashlight in the Moon Phases Box ON.
Step 2.
On the Moon Phases Box, look through the hole marked A.
Step 3.
What do you see?
Step 4.
Repeat steps 1-3 for the holes marked B through E.
Theorize:
A. What moon phase do you see when you look through hole A? B? C? D? E?
B. What acts as the light on our moon to create the various phases?
(Hint: What does the flashlight represent from our solar system?)
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