I am an elementary teacher. Twelve years ago, in my “How to Teach Science” class, the professor gave us a choice of assignments. The first was to put bread in a bag and observe the mold growth over two weeks. The second was to observe the moon for two weeks.

I chose the mold project and at the end of ten weeks I had a mess that looked not only disgusting, but dangerous. When we shared out our results, the professor pointed out that some molds, such as black mold, can kill people, if not make them very sick.

The moon project, others shared out, was very difficult for several reasons. Being in Chicago, it was hard to see the moon at certain times because of buildings and trees. At other times it couldn’t be seen for the reasons you stated. Other times it could be seen, but not all of my fellow teachers had the commitment to set their alarms for 3:15 am. A few did.

Moral of the story? Assignments and projects must be done by the teacher before assigning them to little children. Otherwise you might put your students at great risk or give them an assignment that’s not feasible. And if your students live in a dangerous Chicago neighborhood, it really might not be responsible to ask them to go outside at a late hour. Most parents keep their children inside or might not take the initiative to go out with their child past their bedtime.

Maybe the difference is in where we live? In northeastern US, for the first part of September the moon was visible at reasonable times to look for it (say sometime in the window from 7 to 10 pm) for the 2 thirds of the month – either because it set in the evening/night and you see it before it set, or because it rose just before dark and you could see just after it rose. But by the 21th it rose later than bedtime (21st: 10:39pm, 22nd: 11:30pm, 23rd: 12:26 am … 30th: 6:24am) and set before dark the next day (21st: 12:12pm, 22nd: 1:17pm, 23rd: 2:26pm … 30th: 6:45 pm) so that for about a third of the month the moon was not visible during the window of say 7 pm to 10 pm. But even when it was visible during that window it was not always visible for the entire window – some days you could catch it early before it set or late after it just rose. Though frequently you can see it during the day time also. I’m trying to clarify for myself and others whether it is possible in all locations to see the moon every night at reasonable hours or at around the same time at night. I don’t know if I misunderstand the moon rise/moon set schedule or if things are different in different locations.

Hi Diana! There were times we weren’t able to see the moon due to its location or marine layer of clouds covering the sky. Because we had been tracking it over time, we started to see a pattern and new which part of the sky it should be in on that particular night. We didn’t do it at the exact same time every night, but pretty close since we worked it into our evening/night routine. It was a super fun activity to do together as a family! Hope that helps! 🙂