Tech Club Visit Number 4

The students arrived to have a their ten minutes of typing practice on virtual piano.  Afterwards they listened and asked questions about the phases of the moon and what causes them.  A pre-assessment was informal given that allowed the students to explain what they know about the phases of the moon and what causes them.  Their inability to explain why there is a full moon on the side of the earth that is opposite the sun caused a short informative session involving a flashlight and a "moon" on a pencil.  Then the students were given a computer and shown a lunar phase program that allowed them to see how the moon orbits the earth and provide a deeper look into the phases of the moon.  This took thirty minutes.
The lecture did not work, I asked two of the students after tech club was done for the day what they learned and they couldn't remember a thing we taught.  It really made me feel like a failure as a teacher.  Here I was trying to teach...and they didn't learn, despite one of my best efforts.  Again the computer program was nice, but the only exercises that tested knowledge were done orally by a few members of the group.  Some members of the group were off task a number of times leaving the assistance of students to only two members of the group.  The computer program honestly didn't enhance knowledge like it was planned because it wasn't explained, nor was their a purpose behind using the program.  I saw more than one kid bored, spinning the moon around the Earth because it looked neat.  A few students (3 or 4 out of the 12 we had) actually asked questions and were able to demonstrate their knowledge on the program but a 25-33% success ratio is a poor one indeed.
As seems the unfortunate common theme with technology and the tech club if their is not a purpose to the technology, if they don't have to be on task aside from us telling them to, the students do not see the point and begin to play.  The lunar phase program we used had a section called "student exercises" and I don't understand why we didn't use them.  Next time I will use that section of the program.  Added instruction is also imperative in something as complex as Astronomy.  During the pre-assessment some kids thought that the sun rotated around the Earth, so maybe this was too complex for them, or too complex for an after-school program.