TerraLuna: A CosmoQuest Adventure in Geology

The content of the session will focus on CosmoQuest’s TerraLuna unit, a comparative geology unit that uses authentic data to study the geology of the Moon and Earth. Inquiry activities will allow teachers to help their students compare crater formation and other surface features on the two bodies, comparing Moon features to similar structures on Earth. Links to the latest data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be introduced and hands- on activities will be featured as the basis for inquiry learning in elementary and middle level classrooms. Teachers will be introduced to citizen science projects that will enable their students to think like real scientists and engage in authentic scientific research, providing a useful service to the scientific community. Participation in the workshop introduces teachers to the CosmoQuest website, which includes a suite of citizen science activities. The site provides teachers with an online community dedicated to science inquiry and educational support.