CLEVELAND (AP) — Seventh-grader Henry Cohen jumped from side to side, swinging his arms open and closed over the planets pictured on his T-shirt as the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” played in teacher Nancy Morris’ classroom. .
Henry and other classmates at Riverside School in Cleveland were standing and dancing during a session of activities related to April’s total solar eclipse. Second-graders invited to the lectures sat cross-legged on the floor and laughed as they modeled their newly decorated solar eclipse viewing glasses. Softball-sized model worlds and dioramas featuring moons and flashlight “suns” occupied tables and shelves around the room.
Henry said his shirt reflects his love of space, which he called “a cool mystery.” “It’s a one in a million chance to get the eclipse and I’m happy to be here for that,” he said.
The event inspired science, literacy and culture lessons for schools in or near the totality path of the April 8 eclipse. Some schools also organize group observations for students to experience the horror of daylight darkness and learn together about the astronomy behind it.
Just a hair outside the path of totality, near the Pennsylvania line, the school system in Portville, New York, plans to load its 500 seventh- through 12th-grade students onto buses and head out on an old horse in about 15 minutes. The barn overlooking the valley. There, they will be able to follow the shadow of the eclipse, which will arrive around 15.20 GMT.
The hours of the school day had to be rearranged to stay in class, but Superintendent Thomas Simon said staff did not want to miss the opportunity to learn, especially at a time when students experience so much of life through screens.
“We want them to walk away that day feeling like they’re a very small part of an amazing planet we live on and the world we live in, and that there are some truly amazing things we can experience in the natural world. ” Simon said.
Schools in Cleveland and some other cities in the eclipse’s path will be closed that day to avoid students being trapped on buses or in the crowds of people expected to congregate. At Riverside, Morris developed a variety of crafts, games, and models to pre-educate and engage his students.
“They didn’t really realize how big of a deal this was until we actually started talking about it,” Morris said.
Dennis Schatz, past president of the National Association for the Teaching of Science, said learning about moon phases and eclipses is included in every state’s science standards. Some school systems have their own planetariums, remnants of the 1960s space race, where students can attend educational demonstrations about astronomy.
But there’s no better lesson than the real thing, said Schatz, who encouraged educators to use the eclipse as a “teachable moment.”
Dallas science teachers Anita Orozco and Katherine Roberts plan to do just that at Lamplighter School, arranging for the entire group of students from kindergarten through fourth grade to watch together outdoors. Teachers spent a Saturday in March at a teaching workshop at the University of Texas at Dallas and were told that keeping students inside would be “almost a crime.”
“We want our students to love science as much as we do,” Roberts said, “and we want them to understand how crazy this thing is, but also be in awe of it.”
Orozco said it can be difficult to discuss with young children, but “we want this to be an event.”
In training future science teachers, University at Buffalo professor Noemi Waight encouraged her student teachers to incorporate how culture shapes the way people experience the eclipse. For example, Native Americans may view a total eclipse as something sacred, he said.
“It’s important for our teachers to understand this,” he said, “so they can address all of these elements as they teach.”
The Friends of STEM Club at Brockport State University, New York, planned eclipse-related activities with fourth graders in teacher Christopher Albrecht’s classroom, hoping to impart their passion for science, technology, engineering and math to young students.
“I want to show students what is possible,” said Allison Blum, 20, a physics student concentrating in astrophysics. “You know about mainstream jobs like astronauts, but you don’t really know what’s possible in different fields.”
Albrecht sees fourth-graders’ interest in the eclipse as a chance to incorporate literacy into lessons; Maybe it might even spark a love of reading.
“This is a great opportunity to read with them,” Albrecht said. “What is a Solar Eclipse?” chose the option. “A Few Beautiful Minutes” by Dana Meachen Rau and Kate Allen Fox for her classroom at Hill Elementary School in Brockport, New York.
“It captures their interest,” he said, “and it also captures their imagination.”
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Associated Press writer Patrick Orsagos contributed to this report.