Name: Jordan Washok

Date: 3/7/16

Student Exploration: Ocean Tides

Vocabulary: gravity, high tide, low tide, neap tide, range, spring tide, tides
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. A boy builds a sand castle near the ocean. When he returns several hours later, the castle is
gone. What do you think happened?
High tide comes in and destroys the kids sand castle.
2. A boat sails into a bay and drops anchor. Several hours later, it is surrounded by mud. What
happened?
He dropped the anchor in high tide and now its low tide and the anchor has sunk into the
mud.
Gizmo Warm-up: What is a tide?
In the Gizmo, the pane on the left shows the position of the Earth and Moon. The Sun is far off
in space to the left. The person standing on Earth represents the location of the fisherman
shown at right.
1. Click Play (

) and observe the ocean depth for several days. What do you notice?

The water is rising and falling

The rise and fall of water that you see are called tides.

2. Turn on Show value. Click Pause (

) when the
water is at its highest level, or high tide. What is the
water depth at high tide?
5.9 meters
3. Click Play, and then Pause when the water is at its
lowest level (low tide). What is the water depth at low
tide?
2.9

Activity A:
The Moon and
tides

Get the Gizmo Ready:

Click Reset (

).

Question: What causes the tides?

1. Observe: Click Play and observe for several days. Try to find a connection between the
tides shown at right and the position of the observer shown at left.
What do you notice? The water level is increasing and decreasing, as the moon moves the
high and low tides are at a different time period than before.
2. Form a hypothesis: What do you think causes tides? The gravitational pull of the moon
3. Observe: Click Play, and Pause the simulation at several consecutive high tides. Each time,
look at where the observer on Earth is pointing. Do you see a pattern? What is it?
There is 2 high tides and 2 low tides. The high tides happen 12 hours from each other,
whereas the low tides have 12 hours between each other.
4. Observe: Observe several low tides. Where does the observer point during the low tides?
The low tides have 12 hours between each other.
5. Extend: Turn on Show tidal bands. The tidal bands show the depth of water at different
places (not to scale). Notice the two bulges that show high tide. Click Fast forward (
).
A. In what directions do the bulges always point? Towards and away from the moon
B. How does the Moon seem to affect the tidal bulges? The gravitational pull grabs the
water and pull the water towards the moon, it has the same effect on the back
sectional of the Earth.
6. Think and discuss: The Moons gravity pulls on Earth. How does the Moons gravity affect
the oceans closest to the Moon? It pulls it which is cause for the high tide

Activity B:
The Sun and tides

Get the Gizmo Ready:

Click Reset (
).
Make sure Show tidal bands is on.

Question: How does the Sun affect tides?

1. Observe: Click Fast forward. Observe the shape of the tidal bands. How does the shape
change as the simulation plays? It pulls in different areas due to the moon in orbit
2. Gather data: Click Reset. Use the Gizmo to fill in the table, recording one high and one low
tide each day. Calculate the range, the difference between high and low tide, for each day.
Day

Depth at high tide

Depth at low tide

0
1
2
3
4
5
6

5.9 m
5.8 m
5.7 m
5.6 m
5.4 m
5.3 m
5.2 m

2.9 m
3.0 m
3.1 m
3.2 m
3.4 m
3.5 m
3.6 m

Range
(high tide low tide)
3m
2.8 m
2.6 m
2.4 m
2m
1.8 m
1.6 m

3. Investigate: Tides with the largest range from high tide to low tide are called spring tides.
Click Reset to observe the positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon during a spring tide. Then
Fast forward to another spring tide. (Look for the label in the upper right corner.)
What do you notice about the positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth during spring tides?
The Sun, Moon, and Earth are in a straight line
4. Investigate: Tides with the smallest range from high tide to low tide are called neap tides.
Click Fast forward, and use the label to help find two periods of neap tides.
What do you notice about the positions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth during neap tides?
The Sun and Earth are in a straight line, but the Moon is either above or below the Earth.
5. Conclude: How does the Sun affect tides? It has a minor gravitational pull with the tides, but
its not as strong as the Moons pull on the tides.