Students at Arbor Station Elementary and Stewart Middle schools learned astronomy with a little help from Oreo cookies.

Fourth-graders in Anthony Williams’ class at Arbor Station took part in a Kinesthetic Lunar Lab, carving away the cream on their Oreos to model all eight moon phases, from new moon to full moon.

They saw the difference between waxing and waning light, as well as the percentage of the moon visible from Earth.

“This experience allowed scholars to literally see, construct, and taste the exact concepts they have been mastering in Science class,” Williams said.

At Stewart Middle, students in Vincent Warner’s sixth-grade science class named each phase in a call-and-response, much like Warner calls plays as head coach of the Stewart football team. Students then twisted apart Oreos and used popsicle sticks, their fingers or their teeth to shape the cream into each phase.

They correctly identified each phase and explained how the moon’s position relative to the sun creates what people see from Earth.

The Oreo Moon Phase Lab gave students a chance to learn in an exciting, meaningful way that goes beyond traditional pencil-and-paper or computer-based tasks, said Francene Garrett, master teacher at Stewart.

“There was laughter, smiles and fun for all, especially during the clean-up portion of the experiment,” she added.