Lesson 5

Content
Australian

Science
Class: 6/7
Time: 1hour 30 minutes
Exploring the Moon (tides)
Australian curriculum

Curriculum

Earth and space sciences

Number of Children: 28

Predictable phenomena on Earth, including seasons and eclipses, are caused by

the relative positions of the sun, Earth and the moon (ACSSU115)
Physical sciences
Earths gravity pulls objects towards the centre of the Earth (ACSSU118)
Success

By the end of this lesson students will be able to:

Criteria

Resources

Understand that tides occur due to interactions between the Earth, moon
and sun.
Understand how relative positions of the Earth, moon and sun cause tidal

patterns
Laptops and IPad
Activity sheets
Projector
PowerPoint Presentation: http://prezi.com/jkz2dnpp5hig/the-tide-and-the-moon/
Websites:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/learning/10_tides/activities/predicting_tides.ht
ml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W2sM1Ma7YA
http://rwtinteractives.ncte.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=722
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/weather-andclimate/tides.htm
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_system_level2/moonlight.html

Introduction
10 minutes

Main Body
45 minutes

Introduce the success criteria

View time-lapse videos of tides.

Share ideas about What is a tide? and how they occur.

Define tides as the cyclical process of water levels rising

and falling.

Speculate whether tides can be predicted.

Explore the relationship between the moon and tides

View an animation about the tidal forces on Earth.

Identify and compare types of tides, such as high, low,

neap and spring.

Discuss how gravity from the Earth, moon and sun causes

tides.

Identify relationships between the moon and tides.

Rotation Activities 15- 20 mins

1. Find the definition of the key words (see activity sheet)
2. Draw a detailed diagram of the moon, earth and tidal
affects.
3. Note taking
4. Case study
5. Study Jams test online: tides.
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science
/weather-and-climate/tides.htm
Then move onto:
Moonlight madness:
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_syst
em_level2/moonlight.html
Conclusion

Students are to present their findings on each particular

10 minutes

activity and discuss what they did and what they learnt.
Revisit the success criteria and ask students if they have

Catering to

reached the success criteria.

Variety of activities that stimulate a range of learning styles consequently

Individual

addressing a range of preferred learning styles within each activity.

Learners
Behaviour

Paddle pop sticks with names on ensure that students pay attention at all time in

Management

case their name gets called out.

3 warning system

Comments
Case Study
Ashley was going on a camping trip to the beach on the 25 th November 2014. He knew that he had
to drive on the beach however he had to drive 2 hours before or after the low tide in order to drive
safely on the beach.
Between what times could he drive?
The following day Ashley decided to take his tinny out for a fishing trip. The boat ramp could only
be used 3 hours either side of high tide. At what time could he go fishing from and till? How high is
the tide that day?

Find the Definition of these words.

Low Tide

High Tide

Neap Tide

Spring Tide

Lunar Tide

King Tide

Note Taking. Using the IPads go to: http://rwtinteractives.ncte.org/view_interactive.aspx?

id=722
Write your notes in this online resource.

The Ocean's Tides Explained

The alternating pattern of rising and falling sea level with respect to land is what we know as the
tides. What causes this "motion of the ocean"? In one word, gravity. Specifically, the gravitational
forces of the Sun and Moon.
The key to understanding how the tides work is understanding the relationship between the motion
of our planet and the Moon and Sun. As the Earth spins on its own axis, ocean water is kept at
equal levels around the planet by the Earth's gravity pulling inward and centrifugal force pushing
outward.

However, the Moon's gravitational forces are strong enough to disrupt this balance by accelerating
the water towards the Moon. This causes the water to 'bulge.' As the Moon orbits our planet and
as the Earth rotates, the bulge also moves. The areas of the Earth where the bulging occurs
experience high tide, and the other areas are subject to a low tide.
Water on the opposite side of Earth facing away from the Moon also bulges outward (high tide),
but for a different and interesting reason: in reality, the Moon and the Earth revolve together
around a common gravitational center between them, or center of mass. Here's a rough but
helpful analogy: picture yourself swinging a heavy object attached to a rope around your body as
you rotate. You have to lean back to compensate, which puts the center of mass between you and
the object. With the Earth-Moon system, gravity is like a rope that pulls or keeps the two bodies
together, and centrifugal force is what keeps them apart. Because the centrifugal force is greater
than the Moon's gravitational pull, ocean water on the opposite side of the Earth bulges outward.
The same forces are at play as the Earth revolves around the Sun. The Sun's gravity pulls ocean
water toward the Sun, but at the same time, the centrifugal force of the combined Earth-Sun
revolution causes water on the opposite side of Earth to bulge away from the Sun. However, the
effect is smaller than the Moon, even given the greater mass of the Sun (greater mass means
greater gravitational force). Why? Simply because The Sun is so far away over 380 times
farther away from the Earth than the Moon.
Because the tides are influenced by both the Moon and the Sun, it's easy to see that when the
Sun lines up with the Moon and the Earth, as during a New Moon or Full Moon (a configuration
also called "syzygy"), the tidal effect is increased. These are known as spring tides, named not
for the season, but for the fact that the water "springs" higher than normal.
On the other hand, if the Sun and the Moon are 90 degrees apart in relation to an observer on
Earth as during the First Quarter Moon or Third Quarter Moon (sometimes called half moons),
then high tides are not as high as they normally would be. This is because despite its greater
distance, the Sun's mass allows it to exert enough gravitational force on the oceans that it can
negate some of the effects of the Moon's pull. This phenomenon of lower high tides is called a
neap tide.

Tides most commonly occur twice a day (diurnal). Tides can also occur as two high waters and
two low waters each day (semi-diurnal). However, these periods do not happen at the same time
each day. This is because the Moon takes slightly longer than 24 hours to line up again exactly
with the same point on the Earth - about 50 minutes more. Therefore, the timing of high tides is
staggered throughout the course of a month, with each tide commencing approximately 24 hours
and 50 minutes later than the one before it.