Week 6 Earth Sun Moon

 Olivia Langosch

1. How the phases of the moon occur? 

- The phases of the moon occur by the way the sun is shining on the moon. If only half of the moon is showing, only half of the sun is shown from the other side of the Earth. 

2. What causes the seasons? 

- The season occur because of the Earth, it's tilted on the axis and depending on how that axis is to the Earth, near, or far. When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun, that is our summer because it is closer to the sun. 

3. What causes a lunar eclipse? 

- A lunar eclipse is when the sun and moon align at the same time, the sun's rays peek out behind the moon. 

^^^Some of these might be wrong. 

The big questions from lab were: 

1. How the phases of the moon occur?

2. What causes the seasons?

3. What causes a lunar eclipse? 

We got to experiment with our table groups, with a globe, light (representing the sun), and a styrofoam ball (representing the moon). We tried to describe each of the questions above with these materials. 

I also learned about the Earth's rotation, and how when the Earth's equator is aligned, everyone in the world has the same amount of hours of day and night. 

I also learned about the Moon and how it rotates, the eclipses, etc. I was very confused at first about how the Lunar eclipse happens, but then learned that it actually orbits on an angle, so that is why you can see a full moon, but also have a Lunar eclipse. 

In the lecture, I learned more in depth about these questions. For example, we talked about how we can see the moon and sun at the same time, and where it's always positioned at certain parts of the day. I never know that, but after talking about it in lecture, it made a lot of sense to me. Same with the new moon, full moon, and the quarter moons. I found it interesting talking about why we see that, and when we see it. I also learned this whole week that the Earth moving around the sun is almost a full circle, rather than an oval shape. 

After reading the chapter from the pressbook, I learned more about the eclipses. I did not know about the lunar eclipse, only the solar eclipse. I learned that the lunar eclipse always happens during a full moon, and a solar eclipse always happens during a new moon. Since we talked more about the moons in lecture, this answered a lot of my questions for this week. 

The most helpful was explaining the moons and the eclipses because this was the part that was confusing to me. 

I think for what I need a bit more information on is practicing the shadows. For example, at this time of day, where would my shadow be, and where would the sun and moon be. 

I do not have any more questions or concerns. I had a lot of fun learning new things this week!