Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,
I am teaching 6th Grade Science and wondering if anyone has completed "The Moon and Tides" project. At the end the students are supposed to make a graph showing the tidal range (y-axis) comparing the day of the full moon and the day of the first quarter moon over the course of a year on one graph. Would it be better to have the x-axis labeled with the specific dates of the full moon and first quarter moon (having only one dot on each date) or have them go by month (and then have two dots for each - full AND first quarter moons).

Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi teacher,

Thanks for the great question. I reviewed the project here, but have not done this myself.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure

It seems to me, since you are using two different colors on the chart, it doesn't matter how you chart it. Do you have a little time to do one month each way and see what it looks like? You just want the data arranged in a way that you can see the difference in the high and low tidal measurements. If you are graphing a whole year, I would do one point for each date and over the time you will see the pattern emerging.

Does that help? Let me know if you need further help.

Thanks,
Tonya