Computer Lab Activities, Online Learning Activities
Moon Olympics: A Science Explorations Activity
What would it be like to play sports on the moon? To find out, students can compete in Scholastic’s interactive Moon Olympics!
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8
Part of Scholastic’s Journey Into Space project, the exciting “Moon Olympics” activity (grades 3–6) helps students understand the concept of gravity.
With fun animated graphics and text, this interactive activity first illustrates how athletes lift weights, dive, golf, skateboard a half-pipe, and parachute on Earth. Then, by answering multiple-choice questions, students can predict how each sport would change on the moon.
Sample Question:
What would skateboarding be like on the moon?
- You’d be able to jump higher, and you’d glide back and forth much faster in the half-pipe.
- You’d be able to jump higher, but you’d glide back and forth more slowly in the half-pipe.
- When you jumped off the edge of the half-pipe, you’d said off into space!
More animation and text illustrate the correct answers, shedding light on how gravity and lack of atmosphere and air pressure would affect athletes on the moon.
Learning Objectives
Grades 3–5
- Knows that the Earth's gravity pulls any object toward it without touching it
- Knows that the Earth is one of several planets that orbit the Sun and that the Moon orbits the Earth
Grade 6
- Understands general concepts related to gravitational force (e.g., every object exerts gravitational force on every other object; this force depends on the mass of the objects and their distance from one another; gravitational force is hard to detect unless at least one of the objects, such as the Earth, has a lot of mass)
Related Resources
- Subjects:Astronomy and Space, Sports
