Урок "The Moon - the satellite of our planet"

Тема уроку: The Moon – the satellite of Earth.

Мета уроку: освітня: розширити, уточнити знання учнів про Місяць – супутник нашої планети через інтерактивні навички навчання; практична: практикувати учнів в усному мовленні, вдосконалювати навички монологічного мовлення, розвивати  навички працювати в групах, формувати  навички вживання лексичних одиниць; розвиваюча: практикувати вживання наукової лексики, розвивати уміння і навички говоріння, навички починати і закінчувати бесіду, навчати учнів робити логічні повідомлення з теми відповідно до навчальної ситуації,  використовуючи різні за структурою речення, обмінюватися думками в межах вивченого матеріалу; виховна: викликати змістом уроку проявлення інтересу до вивчення теми дослідження Місяця.

Тип уроку: інтерактивний урок.

Методи і прийоми навчання: говоріння, монологічне мовлення, письмо, асоціативний кущ, робота в групах,  мовна розминка, метод проектів,  бесіда,  відновлення речення, логічне розмірковування, словникова робота, мовна здогадка.

Обладнання: дошка, підручник, ілюстрації, проекти учнів, картки із завданням для учнів, книга «Космос. Ілюстративний путівник» Робіна Керрода, карта Місяця.

                          План уроку.

1. Мотивація.
2. Оголошення теми та очікуваних навчальних матеріалів.
3. Надання необхідної інформації.
4. Інтерактивна вправа.
5. Підбиття підсумків (рефлексія), оцінювання результатів уроку.

Dear pupils! Glad to see you at our extra curriculum research – project. This time we have decided to make a research – project and give it the title “Either’s nearest neighbour.”  You are prepared the project for about two months and now you are ready to present it to you. You know that the Moon is a satellite of the Earth. But what else?                                                          --What things do you know about the Moon?   

Our objectives for this lesson is to communicate on the topic, to receive and give useful information, to get to know as much as possible about the Moon, to practice using scientific vocabulary, to develop monological speech, to research mankind’s opportunities as to exploring the Moon.

So, what are your ideas as to formulate the problems we are going investigate?

Pupils’ answers:

*General information

*What is it like on the Moon?

*How the Moon was the first studied?

*Exploring the Moon

*What is it like on the Moon?

*What is moonlight?

*Some future plans for the Moon?

But before we start the presentation of our project let’s revise the project assessment points (or the main steps of this project work).

Pupils’ remarks:

1.Completion

It means how completely we have archived the aim of our project work.

2. Information Usefulness

It means completely accurate the information you’re collected correspond with the topic and the aim of our project work.

3. Presentation product

It means how well you’ re produced the presentation product, its format and appearance and value.

4. Language skills

It means how good we’re at speaking.

5.Communicate skills

That means how well we can discuss all project points.

Now it’s time for our group work. Our class was divided into two groups. Both groups have prepared the task to each other. Let’s puzzle ourselves!

First group

We have to present the general information about the Moon. There’re 6 planets with questions at our poster and there are 6 Unknown Flying Objects with answers. Join them and we will know some interesting facts about the Moon.

Second group

Look at the map of the Moon. We’re signed the geographical names in Ukrainian. You have to find the English equivalents and stick them next to.

Teacher: So, let’s listen the space music and carry out the tasks. (Space music)

Time is up! This music doesn’t live us indifferent, does it?

Nobody knows how, but music is a key of our heart, it can get inside us. Music is a bridge from our soul outside and vise versa. With the help of music you can prepare yourself for important occasions or it can simply dive expression to your mood. I think this music matches mystery or something. What adjectives are associated  with this music?

Student’s answers:

Fascinating, mysterious, indescribable, unique, incomprehensible, inimitable, unpredictable.

Teacher: Such a great quantity of adjectives. That’s nice. If you are ready, introduce the results of your work. First group must give the general information about the Moon.

General information (Mixed cards with questions and answers).

Questions (Yellow – pink circles):

1. How far from the Earth is the Moon?

2. How big is the Moon?

3. How long does it take the Moon to go around the Earth?

4. Is the dark part of the Moon the shadow of the Earth?

5. Which way does the Moon move in the sky?

6. Does the Moon have a day and a night?

Answers (Green rectangles):

1. The mean distance between the Earth and Moo is 384.000 km.

2. The diameter of the Moon is 3476 km. The mass of it is 1/81 of the mass of the Earth.

3. It takes 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes 11.47 seconds.

4. No, it isn’t. It’s the Moon’s own shadow. It’s the part of the Moon that is turned away from the Sun, so that the sun’s light cannot reach it. It’s the Moon’s night.

5. The Moon revolves around the Earth from West to East, in the same direction which the Earth revolves about the Sun. The Moon changes its position by 1220 every day, moving to the East.

6. The Moon rotates upon its axis in 29.53 earth days. That is the Length of the Moon’s day. So that it has, about 15 Earth days of darkness of any place upon its surface.

T. The next presentation of pupil 1.

What are movements of the moon? 

Like Earth, the Moon rotates on its axis. The moon also resolves both take about a month to complete. Because of the rates of these two motions, the same side of the Moon always faces Earth. In the drawing, “X” marks a spot on the Moon. Follow the ”X” as you trace the Moon’s orbit around Earth. Notice that for each quarter turn the moon makes in its rotation, it also moves one – quarter of the way through its revolution.

The side of the Moon facing the Sun reflects sunlight. The side of the Moon facing away from the Sun is dark. From Earth you can see only the lighted part of the Moon.

As the Moon orbits Earth, you see different amounts of the lighted side of the Moon. Because you can see different times, the Moon seems to change shape. The changing shapes seen from Earth are called phases. The Moon seems to change shape. The Moon phase you see depends on the positions of the Moon, the Earth and the Sun.

T. Pupil 2 wants to tell us what is moonlight? Please.  

What is moonlight?

P.2. The Moon is round and solid. It is made mostly of rock. The Sun is also round. But the Sun is a ball of hot gas that makes its own light. The Moon is not like the Sun. It does not make light. The moon reflects sunlight. Sunlight reflects of the surface of the Moon. It is something like the way light bounces off a mirror. You see the Moon at night because it reflects sunlight. Look at the drawing on the next page. It shows the Moon reflecting sunlight.

T. But how the Moon first studied? Tell us some interesting facts.

How was the Moon first studied?

P.3 and P.4. Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy, the oldest of seven children of a very poor musician and scholar. Galileo was educated at the monastery. Then he studied at the university at Pisa. His father wanted him to be a doctor. But he attended a lecture in geometry. He likes it very much. He asked his father to allow him to change from medicine to mathematics.

Before Galileo could take his degree, he had to leave the University because he had no money and returned to Florence where he became a teacher. He wrote a work on the centre o gravity of solids and after a short interval he was appointed to the post of mathematical lecturer at the University at Pisa. Here, from the leaning tower, he made experiments which proved that all bodies are attracted to the Earth so that they fall with the same speed, regardless of their weight. This was contrary to Aristotle’s doctrine, who declared that heavier bodies fall faster than lighter bodies. Galileo’s experiments proved that this doctrine was wrong. He showed that many of the ancient and accepted principles were wrong. Galileo gained much fame and many enemies. He had to leave the position and to return to Florence to help his family. After a short interval of hardship he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, and here he stayed for 18 years. He invented a thermometer, while he was at Padua.

In 1609, he heard that a Dutch optician discovered an instrument that increased the size of distant objects. Galileo was interested in it very much. The legend is that on the same day he first heard of this instrument, he made his own instrument in this laboratory. This telescope magnified objectives three times. He improved this first telescope very quickly. He made hundreds of telescopes. At last his telescope magnified 33 times. Galileo aimed his telescope at the sky and began a new era in astronomy. This was 1609.

P.5. Once Galileo looked up, discovery followed discovery very fast. The Moon was found to be another world. There were mountains. Venus was found to have a variety of shapes which corresponded to shapes which corresponded to shapes of the Moon. The faint, distant light which still is called the Milky Way lost its cloudy character. Galileo could see many stars.

Saturn looked like a large body with two small companions near it. The Sun – the great, pure Sun, - had some defects.

Galileo saw four small bodies circling around Jupiter. Here was another Universe. It was on January 7, 1610, that Galileo first saw this miniature system. Here was a demonstration of the possibility that smaller bodies could revolve about larger bodies. The foundation was put for the struggle between Galileo and the church.

In 1632, Galileo wrote his “Dialogue on the two great systems of the world”. Galileo’s enemies said that in his book he caricatured the Pope wanted him to go there.

At last Galileo went to Rome where he was brought to trial. Under treat of torture he recanted. Slowly the old man got down on his knees before judges of the inquisition. In a tired voice he said what he was ordered to say. He denied that the Sun was the centre of the Universe and admitted that he had been wrong to teach that. He denied that the Earth turned on its axis or revolved about the Sun and admitted that he had been wrong to teach that. The story is told that when Galileo rose from his knees, after swearing the Earth stood still, he said something to himself, “Nevertheless, it moves!”

The last eight years of Galileo’s life were spent in his house under house arrest. He published here his very important work “The dialogue of a new science”. This book was about his early experiments and with some thoughts upon the mechanics. He continued to observe, and his last discovery was the Moon’s diurnal and monthly libration. He became blind in 1637. He died in 1642.

T. And now it’s time to speak about Moon exploration. Who wants to present us his column?

Moon exploration.

P.6. The second Soviet space rocket was sent toward the Moon on September 12, 1959. It was the first unmanned lunar flight. The rocket probed the near – Earth space and lunar environs. It weigh was 1,511 kilograms. Lunnik – III, the first automatic interplanetary station to go round the Moon was sent toward the Moon on October 4, 1959. The rocket carrying a probe rounded the Moon on October 4, 1959. The rocket carrying a probe rounded the Moon and photographed its far side. The pictures were transmitted over vast distances by television. Researches were thus able to study the moonscapes of the invisible side.

T. P.7. ! Tell us about some future plans for the Moon.

What are the future plans for the Moon?

P.7. Study of other space has been put at the service of the people. This does not mean that direct economic use can be expected, such as discovery of fabulous wealth on the Moon or neighboring planets and their transportation to the Earth. However, space exploration has already produced certain economic results: rockets and satellites help in obtaining information about the atmosphere and thus make for improvement in weather broadcasting. The main aim, however, is to come to know the general laws of nature. Knowledge of these laws will make for the fullest possible use of the natural wealth of the planet and, in future, of other heavenly bodies.

The study of other space is undertaken not only to gain an understanding of the evolution of the Universe, but also to penetrate into the secrets of the structure of matter, which also can have a tremendous effect, connected with the use of atomic energy. No one has been on the Moon since 1972. But, scientists would like to put a telescope on the Moon. The picture below shows an imaginary space city. Would you like to live on the Moon? Perhaps you may!

What do we know about the moon?

 The use of special vehicles to study the Moon, our closest celestial body, began soon after the launching of the first satellite.

The Soviet Luna – 1 probe was the first to overcome terrestrial gravity. It reached lunar environs on January 4, 1959, and passed the Moon at distance of 5,000 – 6,000 km. The Luna – 2 hit the Moon on September14, 1959.

The Luna – 1 and Luna – 2 found no radiation belt or strong magnetic field near the Moon.

The Luna – 3 (October 6, 1959) and the Zond – 3 probes (July 20, 1965) photographed the invisible side of the Moon.

On February 3, 1966, the 100 – kilogram Luna – 9 made the first – ever soft landing the lunar landscape became visible to the television camera.

During next three days the probe transmitted to the Earth TV views of the lunar surface, and different telemetric information.

As a result of this experiment, the hypothesis that the Moon was covered with a layer of dust was disproved. The scientists understood that a lunar spacecraft could not bury in the dust. At the landing side, at least, the lunar ground proved to be quite hard and covered with scattered stones and craters of different sizes.

Thus basic data on the Moon and its surface were obtained by Soviet scientists. But the composition and properties of the lunar stones and rocks were still a mystery.   

On December 24, 1966, another probe – Luna – 13 – made a soft landing on the Moon in the ocean of Storms about 400 km from Luna –9. It transmitted to the Earth new panorama pictures of the lunar landscape, tested the upper layer of lunar matter and continued investigation begun by Luna – 9.

The new stage in lunar exploration was started on April 3, 12966, by the first Soviet lunar satellite functioned for about two months and provided valuable information, while changes in its orbit helped scientists to discover the nature of the Moon’s gravitational field. The Luna – 11 and Luna – 14 continued their lunar orbit missions.

US astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin made the first flight to the Moon aboard the Apollo – 11 spaceship. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin soft – landed in a lunar landing module in the vicinity of the Sea of Tranquility. The crew if Apollo – 12 made a similar flight and explored the area of the Ocean of Storms.

On September 12, 1970, the Luna – 16 automatic station was launched in the Soviet Union. It was the first to bring lunar rock to the Earth automatically. At the time scientists everywhere praised the automatic “geologist”       and said that similar experiments would soon be done on Mars and Venus.

On November 10, 1970, at 5.44 p.m. Moscow Time, the Luna – 17 automatic station was launched in the Soviet Union. The purpose of the flight was to continue the scientific study of the Moon and near – Moon space.

In the course of the Earth – Moon flight there were 36 periods of radio communications, during which the trajectory parameters of the station were measured and the work of its system was checked.

The Luna – 17 automatic station landed on the surface of the Moon in the vicinity of the Sea of Showers on November 17, 1970, at 06.47 Moscow Time. 

Science terms.

Write the letter of the term that best matches the definition.

1) Saucer like dent in the Moon.

2) Moon phase that is one quarter of the way around the Earth.

3) Earth’s closest neighbour in space

4) To spin around a center line or point

5) Makes faraway objects look brighter and closer.

6) Force of attraction between two objects in space.

7) Space explorer.

8) Moon phase that is three quarters of the way around the Earth.

9) To move on a path around another object.

10) Dark side of the moon facing the Earth.

11) Smooth area of the moon filled with hardened lava.

12) Changing shapes of the moon that you see from the Earth.

13) When all of the lighted side of the moon is seen from Earth.

14) Study of objects in space.

15) Light – colored streaks going out from a crater.

a) Astronaut

b) Astronomy

c) Crater

d) First quarter moon

e) Full moon

f) Gravity

g) Last quarter moon

h) Mare

i) Moon

j) New moon

k) Phases

l) Rays

m) Revolve

n) Rotate

o) Telescope

T.- What are the main events of exploration of Moon?

- Who explored Moon?

- What do you know about Galileo Galilei?

- What is Moon?

- What are the peculiarities of Moon as a satellite of the Earth?

- Does the Moon influence on the Earth?

- What astronauts first stepped on the surface of the Moon?

- What spaceship was launched to the Moon?

- What contribution of exploration of the Moon has made the Soviet Union?

Galileo saw mountains                                                the Moon revolves around the Earth from                                     

on the Moon                                                                West to East   

Soviet Lunnik III go                                                   The Moon changes its position by 1220                                      

round the Moon and                                                    every day   

photographed its far side                                           

                                                                                     The Moon is round and solid

Scientists would like to put

telescope on the Moon                                                It is made mostly of rock

Soviet Union used special                                          The Moon reflects sunlight       

vehicles to study the Moon 

                                                                                    There is no radiation belt or strong magnetic

the  first – ever soft landing                                        field near the Moon

the lunar landscape in 1966

 (Luna – 9)                                                                   The composition and properties of the lunar

                                                                                     stones and rocks were still mystery

The first lunar satellite functioned

for about two months                                                   The lunar ground proved to be quite hard

                                                                                     covered with scattered stones and craters

the first flight to the Moon by US

astronauts on the Apollo – 12                                       The Moon is a satellite of the Earth                                      

Luna – 16 was the first to bring                                   The Moon rotates upon its axis in 29.53

lunar rock                                                                                       Earth days

 Homework. Make up ten sentences about exploration of the Moon.