Earth & Space

Earth, Moon & Sun Lab in Virtual Reality

Students spin the Earth, orbit the Moon around their own heads and switch from space to standing on the ground in one click, to understand how the motions of celestial bodies create what we see in the sky.

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17 experimentsAges 8–183 topics

This catalog presents labs available today alongside content in planning and development. Listing content here is not a commitment to develop it or to a release date.

How the lab works

The real challenge in astronomy is the point of view

Understanding moon phases or seasons means picturing at once how things look from space and how they look from here on the ground. In the lab students switch between the two views in one click, and measure shadows, angles and times themselves.

Topic 1

Earth's rotation, the Sun in the sky and the seasons

Primary students link Earth's rotation to the time of day, middle schoolers explain the seasons through angles and shadow measurements, and high schoolers calculate day length and latitude and measure the Earth.

Primary school

Ages 8–12
Ages 8–10

Day and night: where am I now?

Inquiry question
Why is it night here when it is day on the other side of the world?
What students do
Students spin a globe in front of the sun, place a figure on their home country, then jump to stand beside it and watch the sunset.
Why VR
A jump from space to the ground, exactly what students find hard in this topic.
Ages 9–12

My shadow through the day

Inquiry question
How do a shadow's direction and length change from morning to evening?
What students do
Students stand in a schoolyard, move the clock forward and mark the tip of a stick's shadow every hour.
Why VR
A whole day in a few minutes, with the student standing in the scene watching the sun move.

Middle school

Ages 12–15
Ages 12–15

Seasons and axial tilt

Inquiry question
Are the seasons caused by distance from the sun or by the tilt of Earth's axis?
What students do
Students move the Earth along its orbit, switch the axial tilt off and on, and measure sun angle and day length in both hemispheres.
Why VR
Students see from every side how the tilt stays fixed through the orbit, which is very hard to grasp in a drawing.
Ages 14–15

Sun height and shadow length

Inquiry question
How do you calculate the sun's height from a shadow's length, and how does it change between summer and winter?
What students do
Students measure the noon shadow of a one-meter stick on different dates, calculate the angle and check it with a protractor.
Why VR
Quick jumps between dates, and measuring the sun's angle with no risk to the eyes.

High school

Ages 15–18
Ages 15–17

Day length and latitude

Inquiry question
How do latitude and date set the hours of daylight, and where is there a midnight sun?
What students do
Students move a pin on the globe to different latitudes, pick dates, measure day length and plot a graph.
Why VR
Students stand at the pole and watch the sun circle the horizon without setting.
Ages 15–17

Latitude from the North Star

Inquiry question
How did navigators know their latitude without a map?
What students do
Students stand at night in different places around the world and measure the North Star's height with a handheld quadrant.
Why VR
A full night sky, a measuring instrument in hand and quick moves between places.
Ages 15–18

Measuring the Earth like Eratosthenes

Inquiry question
How can two sticks and two shadows give you Earth's circumference?
What students do
Students plant a stick in two cities at noon, measure the shadow angle in each, then pull back to space to see the geometry.
Why VR
A move between measuring on the ground and the view from space that explains it.
Topic 2

The Moon: phases and eclipses

Primary students explain phases and positions, middle schoolers understand why eclipses are rare, and high schoolers calculate sizes and distances from an eclipse.

Primary school

Ages 8–12
Ages 8–11

Moon phases: the Moon around my head

Inquiry question
Why does the Moon change shape during the month?
What students do
The student is the Earth: holding the Moon at arm's length, they turn in front of the sun and watch the phases change.
Why VR
The classic ball-and-lamp activity, with no darkened room and full accuracy.
Ages 10–12

Eclipse or not?

Inquiry question
How must the Sun, Earth and Moon line up for an eclipse?
What students do
Students move the Moon and the Earth until one's shadow falls on the other, and tell a solar eclipse from a lunar one.
Why VR
The shadows in space are visible from every angle.
Ages 10–12

Why do we always see the same side of the Moon?

Inquiry question
Does the Moon spin on its axis?
What students do
Students orbit the Moon around the Earth and tune its spin rate until the marked side always faces us.
Why VR
Switching between standing on Earth and the outside view breaks down a common misconception.

Middle school

Ages 13–15
Ages 13–15

Why isn't there an eclipse every month?

Inquiry question
If the Moon orbits us every month, why do eclipses happen only a few times a year?
What students do
Students switch the tilt of the Moon's orbit on and off, run months on a time dial and mark eclipses on a calendar.
Why VR
The 3D tilt of an orbit, which a flat drawing simply cannot show.
Ages 13–15

Solar eclipse: total here, partial there

Inquiry question
Why is a solar eclipse total in some places and partial in others?
What students do
Students place observers at different spots under the Moon's shadow and jump to each one to look at the sun.
Why VR
A switch between space and the ground, and watching the eclipsed sun with no risk to the eyes.
Ages 13–15

When does the Moon rise?

Inquiry question
Why does a full moon rise in the evening, and a week-old moon around noon?
What students do
Students set the Moon at a given phase, spin the Earth and stand on the ground to see when it rises above the horizon.
Why VR
The outside view and the ground view combined in one experiment.

High school

Ages 16–18
Ages 16–18

Measuring the Moon like Aristarchus

Inquiry question
How can a lunar eclipse reveal the Moon's size and distance?
What students do
Students watch a lunar eclipse from the ground, measure the shadow's width relative to the Moon, then calculate and check from space.
Why VR
Measuring angles in the sky, then checking from space in the same experiment.
Topic 3

Scale and distance in space

How big the Sun is, how far the planets are and how we measure the distance to a star: one experiment per age group, where scale is the point.

Primary school

Ages 10–12
Ages 10–12

How big is the Sun?

Inquiry question
How many Earths fit across the Sun's diameter?
What students do
Students guess Earth's size next to a building-size sun, then line up Earths across its diameter.
Why VR
Standing beside the Sun, at a scale no classroom can build.

Middle school

Ages 12–14
Ages 12–14

Walking the solar system

Inquiry question
If the Sun were the size of a ball, where would each planet be?
What students do
Students place the planets along a path by guessing, then reveal the scaled positions and measure the difference.
Why VR
Walking across vast distances shows how empty space really is.

High school

Ages 16–18
Ages 16–18

Parallax and the distance to a star

Inquiry question
How do you measure the distance to a star you can never reach?
What students do
Students look at their thumb with each eye in turn, then measure how a nearby star shifts between two points on Earth's orbit and calculate its distance.
Why VR
Parallax is about point of view, and in a headset students experience it with their own bodies.
FAQ

Earth, Moon & Sun Lab

Why learn moon phases and seasons in a headset?

Because the hard part is connecting the view from space with the view from the ground. In the headset students switch between the two in one click and see how one produces the other.

Are sizes and distances to scale?

In most experiments they are not, so the Earth, Moon and Sun can be seen together. In the scale experiments, such as "Walking the solar system", sizes and distances keep their true proportions, and that is exactly what they teach.

Which ages is the lab for?

Ages 8 to 18. Primary students explore day and night and moon phases, middle schoolers seasons and eclipses, and high schoolers day length, latitude, Eratosthenes and parallax.

The catalog is updated regularly, and content is added gradually. The labs support Hebrew, Arabic, English and more. To find out which labs are available for your school now: service@prolabsxr.com

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