"When I see the Moon..."

- A universal guide for appreciating life, wondering about the universe, and drawing inspirations through the Moon -

Vision

A guide that any educators on Earth can use to get their students wondering, inspired, and dreaming, by drawing inspirations from the Moon. appreciate the Moon, wonder about it, and dream about it. Eventually, this becomes part of the standard curriculum for every child in the world. Every child should have an opportunity to look at the Moon as a subject of curiosity, a source of inspiration, and a target of dreams.

Aims

* To allow children to appreciate the Moon
* To allow children to wonder and dream
* To allow children to feel world citizenship
Availability
Available online, and printed for those without internet access.
Translated to any language.
Use:
By anybody on Earth
For anybody, including self, students, children, friends, family, ...
At school, home, forums, workshops, ...

Why Moon?

The Moon is the one object that virtually everyone throughout the history and future of Earth has or will have seen and stared at. If there is one object that is constantly being looked at at any given moment by someone somewhere, that would be the Moon. We can see the Moon better than anything else that exists outside of Earth (except maybe the Sun but we shouldn't be looking directly at it!). The Moon catches our attention because it is the only object in the sky that changes its appearance noticably from day to day. Humans decided to divide up the year into "months" according to the cycles of the phases of the Moon. Moon makes the night sky dynamic. Everyone must have found the Moon beautiful at some point. Moon is something everyone can relate to. Doing amazing things on the Moon could inspire people around the world who look at it.

Much more than science

Compared to existing educational materials about the Moon, something that allows children to wonder freely, dream without bounds, be creative, and be inspired. Inspiration, creativity, world citizenship, broader vision, open-mindedness. Life-altering.

Outcome

Every child in the world with curiosity to explore, vision beyond EArth.

Motivation: personal story

When I grew up to be about 16 years old, the Moon in the sky began to catch my attention. Maybe because I began to see it as something beautiful, every time it caught my eye, it made me stare at it for a while. As I began to stare at the Moon, it made me wonder what it's like there, ... what it's like to be there. My curiosity made me what to go there. Since then, every time I saw the Moon, I would say to myself, "I'm gonna get there". It has motivated me to work hard so that I can some day go there. Seeing the Moon has been a constant reminder of my dreams. I would like to share this inspiration that the Moon can offer us.

Later, I also noticed that the Moon is the one object that is

Activities

  1. Looking at the Moon

  2. Appreciating a lunar eclipse

  3. Feeling connections through the Moon

  4. Becoming inspired by the Moon

  5. Dreaming to go to the Moon

Moon is a New World.

Looking at the Moon, we can see areas of different shades. The Moon is the only object in outer space that we can see in such detail. It's beautiful. It's not a flat patch in the sky -- it's a spherical body 1/4 the size of Earth. It's a new land of a new world. Looking at the Moon makes me wonder what it would be like to be on it. The unknown new world made humans want to go there and explore it... see what it'd be like to be there. So when humans became capable of launching things into space, the Moon was their first destination. We would like to look at the Moon and realize we are doing something there. Wouldn't it touch your life if every time you saw the Moon, you realized that we are right now doing something there... whether it'd be observing the universe or Wouldn't it be awesome to look at the Moon and be able to realize that we are doing something there, as we're looking at it?

We CAN Reach the Moon.

If we could land people on the surface of the Moon in 1969 (over 30 years ago), we're sure capable today of going there. Some day, maybe many of us will be able to experience being on the Moon. A rocket pioneer Robert Goddard said, "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." So let's do something inspiring on the Moon!

Existing resources
Spacelink - Earth's Moon
Lunar Prospector Hands-On Activities
A Virginia Moon Colony (An Interdisciplinary Case-Based Unit)
Guide to the Moon (for middle school earth science)
MoonQuest
Space Day Design Challenge
The Moon - Zoom Astronomy
The Moon (animations)
Educator's Guide to Moon Phases
Moon literature