Social Studies Integration

            The Chinese hold the moon in high regard. According to traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotion. The moon is typically identified with the feminine principle of yin. This gives insight to the moon being associated with gentleness and brightness, expressing beauty and yearning. The Chinese celebrate their adoration of the moon on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month at the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the west, the moon festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese. The festival is embedded in Chinese traditions and is a time to celebrate family and love. Mooncakes, matchmaking, burning incense, and fire dragon dancing are all components of this celebratory festival.
            The Native Americans were not interested in time for the sake of time itself. They did not have clocks and calendars to keep track of their daily “schedules.” Native Americans told time by the ebb and flow of tides, ripening of strawberries, watching stars rise and fall, or by knowing when bears wake from hibernation. Since time keeping devices were not developed at this time the Native Americans used the moon to tell time. Tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon. The names given to the moon symbolized what the moon meant to them by the virtue of its use, guidance, and influence in their daily lives.
           There are a myriad of different ways to integrate historical events related to space exploration. First, students could complete a NASA webquest on the history of NASA and their contribution to space exploration. A webquest exploring NASA would be a great hands-on, inquiry lesson for young learners to gain a more meaningful understanding of space and the exploration of space. Second, students could read various books to create a timeline of important landmark events in space exploration. In order to extend creating a timeline, students could write a biography on Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin to teach younger students about these hallmark space explorers.

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