Introduction

Completed

Image that shows Over the Moon title art.

Over the Moon is a beautifully crafted story of how a girl named Fei Fei builds and flies a rocket ship to meet the Moon Goddess, Chang'e. This film ignites curiosity about how we relate to the rest of our universe.

This film, along with the real-life ingenuity of space exploration, inspired this module. Looking into the night sky and seeing stars, planets, and meteor showers can often kindle a scientific and imaginative curiosity about our universe. On one hand, you might feel awe about what we collectively know about the universe, thanks to the scientists, engineers, and astronauts who have built upon collective knowledge for hundreds of years. On the other hand, you might feel wonder about the stories you've heard about what causes meteor showers or who lives on the Moon. These perspectives often drive each other. New scientific discoveries create new narratives for films, and fiction provides us with the creativity to solve real problems in new ways.

Image that shows Fei Fei hearing of the story of the Moon Goddess Chang'e.

This module focuses on a real-world event, meteor showers. It guides you to use data science to predict the best day to see a meteor shower in your general location. Just like Fei Fei, you'll hone new skills, develop persistence, and be inspired by the story to build something that brings you closer to the universe.

Tip

This module is part of a multimodal learning experience. Follow along with a video walkthrough of the module in a new tab.

This module and accompanying video use data from 2020 to predict meteor showers. However, you can gather data for the current year from the sources listed in the module and use that data in the models instead.