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Seventh-grade student Henry Cohen bounced side to side in time to the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d playing in teacher Nancy Morris\u2019 classroom, swinging his arms open and closed across the planets pictured on his T-shirt.<\/p>\n
Henry and other classmates at Cleveland\u2019s Riverside School were on their feet, dancing during a session of activities tied to April\u2019s\u00a0total solar eclipse<\/a>. Second-graders invited in for the lessons sat cross-legged on the floor, laughing as they modeled newly decorated eclipse viewing glasses. Dioramas with softball-sized model earths and moons and flashlight \u201csuns\u201d occupied desks and shelves around the room.<\/p>\n Henry said his shirt reflected his love of space, which he called \u201ca cool mystery.\u201d The eclipse, he said, \u201cis a one in a million chance and I\u2019m glad I get to be here for it.\u201d<\/p>\n For schools in or near\u00a0the path of totality<\/a>\u00a0of the April 8 eclipse, the event has inspired lessons in science, literacy and culture. Some schools also are organizing group viewings for students to\u00a0experience the awe of daytime darkness<\/a>\u00a0and learn about the astronomy behind it together.<\/p>\n A hair out of the path of totality, the school system in Portville, New York, near the Pennsylvania line, plans to load its 500 seventh- through 12th-grade students onto buses and drive about 15 minutes into the path, to an old horse barn overlooking a valley. There, they will be able to\u00a0trace the shadow of the eclipse<\/a>\u00a0as it arrives around 3:20 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n It required rearranging the hours of the school day to remain in session, but Superintendent Thomas Simon said staff did not want to miss out on the learning opportunity, especially at a time when when students experience so much of life through screens.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want them to leave here that day feeling they\u2019re a very small part of a pretty magnificent planet that we live on, and world that we live in, and that there\u2019s some real amazing things that we can experience in the natural world,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n Schools in Cleveland and some other cities in the eclipse\u2019s path will be closed that day so that students aren\u2019t stuck on buses or in crowds of people expected to converge. At Riverside, Morris came up with a mix of crafts, games and models to educate and engage her students ahead of time.<\/p>\n \u201cThey really were not realizing what a big deal this was until we really started talking about it,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n Learning about\u00a0phases of the moon and eclipses<\/a>\u00a0is built into every state\u2019s science standards, said Dennis Schatz, past president of the National Science Teaching Association. Some school systems have their own planetariums \u2014 relics of the 1960s space race \u2014 where students can take in educational shows about astronomy.<\/p>\n But there is no better lesson than the real thing, said Schatz, who encourages educators to use the eclipse as \u201ca teachable moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas science teachers Anita Orozco and Katherine Roberts plan to do just that at the Lamplighter School, arranging for the entire pre-K- through fourth-grade student body to watch it together outdoors. The teachers spent a Saturday in March at a teaching workshop at the University of Texas at Dallas where they were told it would be \u201calmost criminal\u201d to keep students inside.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want our students to love science as much as we do,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cand we just want them understanding and also having the awe of how crazy this event is.\u201d<\/p>\n Wrangling young children may be a challenge, Orozco said, but \u201cwe want it to be an event.\u201d<\/p>\n In training future science teachers, University at Buffalo professor Noemi Waight has encouraged her student teachers to incorporate how culture shapes the way people experience an eclipse. Native Americans, for example, may view the total eclipse as\u00a0something sacred<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is important for our teachers to understand,\u201d she said, \u201cso when they\u2019re teaching, they can address all of these elements.\u201d<\/p>\n The STEM Friends Club from the State University of New York Brockport planned eclipse-related activities with fourth-grade students at teacher Christopher Albrecht\u2019s class, hoping to pass along their passion for science, technology, engineering and math to younger students.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to show students what is possible,\u201d said Allison Blum, 20, a physics major focused on astrophysics. \u201cYou know those big mainstream jobs, like astronaut, but you don\u2019t really know what\u2019s possible with the different fields.\u201d<\/p>\n Albrecht sees his fourth-grade students\u2019 interest in the eclipse as a chance to incorporate literacy into lessons, too \u2014 maybe even spark a love of reading.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is is a great opportunity to read a lot with them,\u201d Albrecht said. He has picked \u201cWhat Is a Solar Eclipse?\u201d by Dana Meachen Rau and \u201dA Few Beautiful Minutes\u201d by Kate Allen Fox<\/a> for his class at Hill Elementary School in Brockport, New York.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s capturing their interest,\u201d he said, \u201cand at the same time, their imagination, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSubscribe to Impact Report, a weekly newsletter on the trends and issues shaping corporate sustainability. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n