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Town 'N Country Teacher's Lesson Plan Reaches For The Moon

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 8, 2008

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Bay Crest Elementary School teacher Ruth Jones brought the moon into her fifth-grade classroom recently, allowing students to scrutinize moon rocks, create craters and compare space seeds to Earth ones.

A mixture of flour and colored sand substituted for the lunar surface in class. Students could see how craters form by dropping marbles into flour from varying heights.

The students also tested how basil seeds that went into space on a shuttle mission grow compared with seeds that never left Earth. NASA sent Bay Crest, and other schools that volunteered, seeds that educator Barbara Morgan brought back from the International Space Station last year.

Jones has attended training through NASA and signed up to participate in the seed experiment. She also has attended a workshop that certified her to borrow moon rocks.

Adrian Morris, 10, volunteered to research the moon and show other classes the rocks. He said kindergartners have the most questions, including wondering whether the moon is made of cheese. "No cheese has ever been found on the moon," Adrian said.

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