Science 5 - Space Websites
Astronomical Phenomena (Cyclical)
It can certainly be helpful for students to associate what is going on with the pahses of the moon in the month (or months) that you teach this unit. This website creates a calendar for the currently month (and/or any other months) that you can show to your students, or print off.
This site is a wonderful site to not only see the current phase of the moon, but every day, there is a label of three key features of the moon's surface.
URL: https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-observation/daily-moon-guide/
This site allows you to move this little stickman in the upper right (to change the latitude) and then change the date of the year (by moving the earth around its orbit). By changing both of these factors, you are able to not only look at the angle at which the sun is hitting the earth at your latitude today, but also on any day at any latitude.
URL: https://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/eclipticsimulator.html
Stellarium Online is an incredible tool that not only allows you to see what would be visible in the sky at any place on earth at any time in history (or the future), but it is also packed with information about all of the objects that are visible to you as an observer. In grade five, this site is notably useful for the constellation identifications, and the art that can be superimposed of the 88 IAU constellations, and also the duration of sullight on the solstices and equinoxes to really show the differences between seasons.
Astronomical Phenomena (Non-cyclical)
This simulation allows you to choose one of the three most recent eclipses in North America, and then change the information that you see about each of these last three eclipses. By watching either the 2017 or 2024 eclipse and comparing either of them to the 2023 eclipse, students can see the key differences between a total eclipse and an annular eclipse.
Too often we only seem to be interested in the weather that is taking place on the surface of the earth; this site allow you to see predictions for weather that is coming to earth (from the sun) in space. This can be a great tool for showing students that there are many measures that we can make about the arrival of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that result in incredible displays of the aurora.
Cultural Interpretations of Phenomena
While there are many pieces of information that can be found on some of the other sites here, this site also adds many tables of data such as sunrise/sunset times, moonrise/moonset times, and lunar cycles all on tables that can be accessed for any major city in the world. In addition to this it adds mention of the naming of each full moon each month, plus the "Black Moon" for the one month that has two full moons; this cultural part could be used for the cultural interpretations of phenomena.