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Lessons Five to Six: Create Moon Phase Animations
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here to see student samples from my class:
Using an animation program such as the one included in Star
Office 5.2, students will create eight images of the moon. Inform students
ahead of time that the project is easier if they begin with the
full moon. This does not follow the actual order of the moon
phases. However, when the animation is put together, the phases
are correct.
Instruct your students to do the following:
Go to image five. Fill in your entire frame with the color
black. Then select a gray color. Using the oval tool to make a
circle large enough to fill most of the frame. Use the paint
tools to make it look like a full moon. Save the image. Copy
this image. Paste your full moon image into frame six. Select
black from the color pallet. Use the brush tool to paint over a
small portion of the full moon on the right side. This is a
waning gibbous. A gibbous moon is between a half moon and a full
moon. Waning means shrinking. Save the image. Copy this image.
Paste the waning gibbous image onto frame seven. Select black
from the pallet and fill in the moon until the entire right half
is black. This is the last quarter moon. Save the image. Copy
the image.
Paste the last quarter moon onto frame eight. Select black from
the pallet and fill in most of the right side until you have
created a crescent moon on the left. A crescent moon is halfway
between the new moon and a half moon. This is a waning crescent
moon. Save the image. Copy the image. Paste the waning crescent
moon image into frame one. Select black from the pallet and fill
the entire frame with black. This is the new moon. Save the
image.
The new moon is the phase of the moon when the moon is
not visible from Earth, because the side of the moon that is
facing us is not being lit by the sun. Go back to image five
(the full moon) and copy it. Paste the full moon into frame
four. Select black from the pallet and fill in a very small
portion of the left side of the moon. Save the image. This is a
waxing gibbous. Waxing means growing. Copy the image. Paste the
waxing gibbous onto image three. Select black from the pallet
and fill in the moon so the entire left side is black. This is
the first quarter moon. Save the image. Copy the image. Paste
the first quarter moon onto image two. Select black from the
pallet and fill in the moon with black until there is a crescent
on the right side. Save the image. This is a waxing crescent.
When all of the images are complete, adjust the timing
on each image so they blend together into a realistic moon phase
animation sequence. Put the moon animations in a text file or
Web page. Have students write facts about the moon (I assigned
each group to find two moon facts) to go along with them.