Students use a folded paper plate to mark the angles of shadows on a sunny day. They will measure the angle at several times during the day. The process can be repeated each month to gather more data and reinforce concepts.
Students will draw pictures of the day and night sky on a paper plate.
Students will use paper plates to demonstrate the size of the solar system by using a scale model to show relative distances from the sun.
This resource provides information about using the classic children's book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown to illustrate the apparent movement of the moon across the sky at night. Suggestions for other books that are also helpful in teaching this concept are listed.
This demonstration illustrates the two shadow regions through which a moon can pass - the umbra and the penumbra - during a lunar eclipse. The demonstration uses two separated worklights and a paper plate to simulate the eclipse.
Students use paper plates to construct a device which will allow them to determine the time the moon rises, transits, and sets and the way that these are related to the rising, transit, and setting of the sun. The moon finder will give students a good idea of when to look and in which direction to see the moon in its respective phases.
Students create a moon phases book using paper plates to model each phase.
Students will use a paper plate and a football field to address a common misconception about the motion of the moon - that the moon "loops" around the earth - when in fact the path of the moon is always concave to the sun. At a distance of 100 yards - goal line to goal line - the plate is about the radius of the moon's orbit, and the width of the field represents about 30 degrees or 1 month. In an extension activity, students can investigate barycenter.