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Moon Orbiting the Earth

The initial task for the activity.
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Instructions for creating the orbiting moon.
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Activity Background

View Project		Teacher and School


View Kahootz Xpression		View Kahootz Movie

			Quicktime Movie (115 KB)

Key Learning Areas		Theme

	Science, Mathematics, Society and Environment		Create a realistic orbit for the moon around the earth.
Year Level		Student Age

	Years 8 - 9		13 - 14
Ability Level		Class Size

	Mixed		24
Computer Access		Duration

	Students have access to a computer lab within the school for one 50-minute session a week.		2 weeks

Rationale

This unit integrates aspects across the Key Learning Areas of Society and Environment, Science, Mathematics and Information and Communication Technology.

It involves students experimenting with the animation and placement of various shapes to create a realistic lunar orbit.

The classroom teacher saw similar examples of space related projects published by other teachers. These were flagged in the Kahootz Forums.

Student Tasks

The class was provided with an activity outline by the teacher that required them to produce the following:

	Research information regarding the orbit of the moon around the earth.
	Choose a space World.
	Place the earth and 2 moon Objects as outlined in the activity outline.
	Experiment with re-sizing and grouping to make one of the moons 'invisible'.
	Create a keypoint animation to illustrate the orbit of the moon around the earth.

Grouping and re-sizing
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The actual orbit.
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Involvement for Xpression Participant

	Interrogate the type of Object keypoint animation used.
	Select the grouped Objects and ungroup them. Investigate how they were resized.

	Experiment with the positioning of the Objects to see if that effects the nature of the orbit.

Learning Outcomes for Student Creator

	Researching information relevant to the lunar orbit.
	Creating a realistic orbit.
	Developing an understanding of how orbits can be adapted changed or modified through the use of grouping, positioning and animation.

	Allows the student to demonstrate their understanding of spatial concepts.

Collaborative Potential

	Students can experiment with each other's orbiting Scenes. Changes can be made to determine the effect on the orbit.

	Students could add multiple planets and see if more sophisticated orbiting patterns can be created.