Moon and Tides Lab teaching notes
For middle school Earth science teachers, co-op leaders and parents. Phases in one period, a period each for eclipses and tides, what students get wrong and where the app answers it, what the model leaves out, and the sheet and the setup.
Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work. mytekDev is also available from the Google Workspace Marketplace, so your school's Google admin can install it for everyone.A first lesson: One period for phases: predict what makes the Moon change shape, drag it round, test the Earth's-shadow idea, and predict again. A second period for eclipses, and a third for tides where your state teaches them.
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- Phases in one period
- Eclipses, a second period
- Tides, a third period where your state teaches them
- What students get wrong, and where the app answers it
- What the app simplifies, on purpose
- Middle school and high school
- The sheet, the puzzles and the setup
- Standards
About these notes
Moon and Tides Lab shows one moment two ways: the Earth and Moon from far above the North Pole, and the sky from a beach where a small person on the Earth is standing. Drag the Moon and the Moon over the beach changes shape; drag the person and the clock turns. Three chapters, Phases, Eclipses and Tides, each open with a prediction that is saved and asked again at the end.
It is written for MS-ESS1-1: develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons. Its evidence statement asks students to predict the phase from the positions, the positions from a phase, and whether an eclipse will be seen from a place, and to name the model's scale limits. Those are the app's puzzles, and every view says what is not to scale. Seasons are not in this version.
Phases in one period
- Predict (3 minutes) Everyone picks what they think makes the Moon change shape: Earth's shadow, something covering it, or how much of its lit half we see. About half of people pick the shadow. Do not correct anyone yet.
- Drag to the half Moon (7 minutes) The guide sends them to drag the Moon a quarter of the way round. The crescent over the beach grows into a half Moon, high in the sky at sunset. The yellow and blue arcs mark the half lit by the Sun and the half facing Earth; the overlap is what we see.
- Test the shadow idea (10 minutes) On to full Moon, then Earth's shadow on. It points straight away from the Sun. Drag back to a crescent: the shadow is nowhere near it, and the Moon still has a shape. Everyone answers the question again.
- Turn the Earth (10 minutes) Drag the person round. The phase does not change in a night; where it is does. Try the Moon in the daytime and the same night in Sydney.
- Puzzles (10 minutes) Name the phase from above, place the Moon to make a picture, and set the clock to the moment a full Moon rises.
- Exit question (5 minutes) Why is it not Earth's shadow that makes the Moon change shape?
Eclipses, a second period
Open the Eclipses tab. The picture from above gets a side view under it, with heights to scale and distances squeezed (it says how many times). The guide asks whether there is an eclipse of the Moon every month, sends them to press Next full Moon three times, then to lay the orbit flat (every full Moon is now an eclipse) and back. The year strip shades the eclipse seasons. Things to try find a total eclipse of the Moon and an eclipse of the Sun seen from your place.
Tides, a third period where your state teaches them
Tides are not in NGSS MS-ESS1-1, but Texas (TEKS 6.9B), Virginia (SOL 6.3), Florida and New York teach them with the Moon. The Tides chapter starts on an ocean planet: arrows show the Moon's pull at each place less its pull on the Earth's middle, the ocean stretches into two bulges, and a beach turning through a day gets two high tides. The Sun's pull and a month on the graph show spring and neap tides. Then Real coast picks a NOAA station: Boston's two equal tides, San Francisco's two unequal ones, Pensacola's one a day, Eastport's five meters.
What students get wrong, and where the app answers it
| What students say | Where the app answers it |
|---|---|
| Phases are Earth's shadow | The shadow switch points away from a crescent and a half Moon; the prediction is asked before and after |
| Phases and eclipses are the same thing | Phases first, then the Eclipses chapter: the shadow only matters at the crossing points |
| Australia sees a different phase tonight | The same night in Sydney: the same phase, turned over |
| The far side of the Moon is dark | A marked crater always faces Earth; the far side is lit at new Moon |
| The Moon is only out at night | A half Moon in the afternoon sky, a third quarter Moon in the morning |
| There should be an eclipse every month | The side view, eclipse seasons, and the flat orbit switch |
| Everyone sees a solar eclipse | Earth seen from the Sun: a small dark spot of totality inside a wider partial shadow |
| One high tide a day, under the Moon | The far bulge and the arrows; the beach turns through two highs |
| Tides are the wind and the waves | A month of a real station's tide lined up with the Moon's phases |
| The Moon is close to the Earth | Real distance: 30 Earth-widths away |
What the app simplifies, on purpose
- Nothing is to scale in the same picture, and each view says how. The Moon is drawn closer and bigger; the side view squeezes distances, not heights; the tide bulges are drawn about 4 million times too big.
- In Model mode the Earth's own tilt and the seasons are left out and the clock is sun time, so noon is when the Sun is highest. Real dates mode uses the real tilt and clock time.
- The Moon's path is a circle whose distance changes about 5 percent either way; that is enough to make annular eclipses. It goes from new Moon to new Moon in about 29 and a half days and round the Earth in about 27 and a third.
- Eclipse paths across the Earth are worked out simply: good for seeing who is in the shadow, not for planning a trip.
- The ocean-planet tide bulges sit right under the Moon; on the real Earth they run a little ahead, and real oceans have no single bulge at all, only tide waves going round each ocean.
- Real coast tides use 29 of NOAA's constants: within a few centimeters of NOAA's tables at eleven stations, about a quarter of a meter at Anchorage.
Middle school and high school
| Middle school | High school | |
|---|---|---|
| Phases | Phase names, percent lit, low or high in the sky, rise and set times | The angle from the Sun, the phase angle, the lit-fraction formula, altitude and azimuth |
| Eclipses | Above or below the shadow, who can see it | The Moon's height in degrees, how far the shadow misses Earth's middle, the umbra's size |
| Tides | Meters above or below average, spring and neap | One over distance cubed, the Sun's share, a station's tide constituents and its form factor |
The sheet, the puzzles and the setup
The Sheet in the app's header is the student's write-up: a picture, their predictions before and after in each chapter, the puzzles solved, their Moon log, and questions with the standard each serves. They hand it in and it saves with the project; Print makes a paper copy. The eight Puzzles are checked by the app itself, never by a typed answer.
Setup is for you: the level, which chapters students can open (Phases is always on), whether the guide is on, one place for the whole class, whether real dates are allowed, the sheet's questions and up to ten of your own. Print answer key gives every puzzle's answer and what a good answer to each question says. Press Done, save, and hand the project out as the starter.
Standards
- MS-ESS1-1: a model of the Earth-sun-moon system for the cycles of lunar phases and eclipses (seasons are not in this version).
- MS-ESS1-3: scale properties, through the Real distance switch and the scale lines.
- Texas TEKS 6.9(B), Virginia SOL 6.3, Florida SC.8.E.5.9 and New York HS-ESS1-7: tides with the Moon.
- HS-ESS1-4 at the high school level.
- Science practice: developing and using models. Crosscutting concept: patterns.
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Page last reviewed November 2026.
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