Fremont Middle School part of international project

Sixth-grader Payton Cousins stared through the astrolabe she constructed out of cardboard, string, and a metal nut in Ann Ward’s science class at Fremont Middle School as part of the MOON Project.

The device determines the distance of the moon and stars to points on Earth. It was an ancient instrument used widely in medieval times by navigators and astronomers to determine latitude, longitude, and time of day.

“It is really cool how you can tell the distance,” Cousins said. “We are observing the moon and the stars and seeing crescent moon and full moons and trying to tell which days of the month will go into each moon.”

The Mundelein school is among about 20 schools internationally taking part in a study called the MOON Project — More Observation Of Nature. It is under the leadership of Texas Tech University College of Education in collaboration with other universities around the world.

Participating teachersdevelop STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) classrooms whereby students work together internationally, via the Internet.

This week, Fremont students are creating simple, handmade astrolabes for observation at home of the moon and to measure its angle to the Earth, and also to study lunar phases over the next five weeks.

After the analysis piece is completed, students will meet in groups to discuss their data, sort out the accurate information, come to a conclusion and write a report on their findings. The data collected will be shared with other schools throughout the United States and Australia.

“They are part of a real study on the moon with other schools in the world,” said Ward, a sixth grade science teacher. “A report of their observations goes into a big, large data warehouse. We will pull information from other schools and look for patterns in the moon and phases in the moon from different parts of the world.”

Fremont Middle School is the only school from Illinois registered in the project.

The MOON Project began in 2001 at Ball State University and Texas Tech took over in 2006. In 2003, it was honored with the Ohaus Award for Innovations in Science Teaching by the National Science Teachers Association.