Incorporate moon science into an interdisciplinary unit that weaves science with social studies and language arts. Discuss with students the purposes of myths as explaining a scientific phenomenon. Discuss various moon-related myths from several cultures; suggested myths are the Inuit story of Annigan, the Chinese story of Chang'e, and the Greek story of Selene.
Then prepare a moon demonstration by setting a lamp in the middle of the room. Each student stands and represents the earth. Give each student a small ball to hold in front of them to represent the moon. Students practice rotating and circling the sun while watching their respective moon as they try to mimic the moon's phases. Discuss with students the various factors that affect the phases of the moon. After the exercise, ask students to write a scientific explanation of moon phases as well as a short mythical explanation of the moon phases.
African, South American, Native American, Nordic, and Asian cultures incorporate drums into their cultural music and ceremonies. Incorporate a research project on cultural drums into a science project on sound science. Divide the class into groups of three students. Each group is responsible for conducting research on a culture that incorporates music into ceremonies or activities; possible research topics include Gambian culture, Indian culture, Caribbean culture or Zydeco culture. Groups prepare a poster that demonstrates their research.
Groups also participate in a drum-making activity that demonstrates the factors that affect sound. Provide groups with large jars of several sizes and several materials that serve as drum skins, the piece of material placed over the top of the drum that produces sound. Skins could be balloons, newspaper, small tin lids, poster board, various fabrics or plastic wrap. To attach the skin to the jar, secure the material around the open end of the jar with a rubber band.
Each group experiments with different types of jars and skins until they create a drum that most closely resembles the types of drums found in their researched culture. Students should observe and discuss the kinds of sounds produced by each jar and skin combination and analyze which factors affect sound.
Allow students to draw on their own cultural heritage to guide a research project on scientific leaders. Students interview their parents or grandparents to discover their cultural heritage or identity; some students may be first generation Americans or American immigrants. Each student selects on trait that they feel is central to their cultural identity. Students may select a country of origin, race, gender or religion. Each student conducts research that identifies scientific leaders within their selected cultural identity category. For instance, a student may select to conduct research on female scientific leaders while another may research scientists from the Dominican Republic. Students select two major scientific contributors and prepare a short presentation on their contributions to present to the class.