What is that

in the sky?

One night, a little girl named Gina was playing outside with her friends from next door. She looked up at the sky and saw a circular object that was lighting up the entire night sky. She wondered to herself what it could be.

Gina was so curious about the mysterious object in the sky that every night she looked out her bedroom window to observe it and each night she saw how different it looked.

Eventually, Gina asked her parents what the mysterious object in the sky was. “Well that’s the Moon honey.” Her father said. “The Moon? What is the Moon?” Gina replied. Her father went on to explain exactly what the Moon was.

Her father said, "Well, the Moon is an object in our solar system made up of rocky material and it orbits around the Earth." Gina was so excited to finally know what the mysterious object in the sky was.

I should plan

an investigation.

Then Gina remembered when she would observe the Moon from her bedroom window, it did not always look the same, so she asked her father, "Why does the Moon appear different on different days?" Her father didn't just want to tell her so he decided to plan an investigation.

“How about we create our own investigation to figure out your question?” Her father said. Gina loved the idea and could not wait to get started! “What all do we need for an investigation?” Her father then explained they needed some paper, a pencil, and a window to observe from in order to collect all their data and began the investigation.

 They began the investigation by creating a calendar with the paper and pencil in order to track what the Moon looked like each night. Then they started to observe the Moon on the first of the month. 

On the first night of observing, Gina noticed that the Moon was only half there. She asked her father, “Where is the rest of the Moon?” “Well sweetie, it is all there but we can only see half of it right now.” He went on to explain that the Moon does not emit any light itself but instead the Sun’s light is reflected off the Moon which is what we see from Earth. 

Gina continued to observe every night right before she went to bed, doing so for an entire month.

Day 10

Day 15

I wonder where

the Moon is tonight...

On the 15th night of observing, Gina did not see the Moon in the sky but she remembered what her father had said about how the Sun's light is reflected on the Moon which is what we see on Earth and thought to herself, "Something must be blocking the Sun's light and that is why we can't see the Moon."

She asked her father, "What is blocking the Sun's light?" He went on to explain that the Moon was blocking the Sun's light. "That means that from Earth, we don't see the Moon because the other side is lit up?" "Exactly!" Her father replied.

She continued to observe.

Day 20

Day 28

Gina looked at the Moon for the entire month, making sure to draw an image of what she saw on her calendar each night.

Wow!

So cool!

Look at my

data on

the Moon!

She was so excited about all the data she had collected from observing the Moon for an entire month that she shared it with all her friends. Although she was excited, she was still unsure how to answer her original question, why does the Moon appear different on different days?

"Now that the month is over Gina, we need to look back at the data and see what we can find from it." Gina showed her father her calendar and said "On the last night I noticed that the Moon looked exactly like it did on the first night I observed it. It looks like the Moon follows some sort of pattern."

Her father explained that the Moon did in fact follow a pattern and it completes a cycle every 29 days. Gina still was not sure how to answer her investigation question, so she asked her father for some hints. "Well the Moon goes through phases." "So every night when I saw the Moon and it looked different, it was because it was in a new phase?" "That is right sweetie." Her father replied.

Can Gina present

her findings

to the class?

Yes, of course!

Gina finally figured out why the Moon appears different on different days and when she told her father, he called her teacher and asked if Gina could present her findings to the class. "Of course! That would be perfect since we are talking about the solar system in class this week." Gina's teacher replied.