With the April 15th Total Solar Eclipse, a few schools wanted us to do some eclipse work.
We went to Lakeview Elementary and Shakamak Elementary to work with a variety of grades to explore the eclipse. They all knew what was coming and had good explanations of what it was. One thing they (and most people) didnt know was that a total solar eclipse happens about every 18 months. “We” dont pay much attention because it happens in different places around the world. The next one that the U.S. will see is in 20 years. We also do some Q&A about stars and what is in space (mostly empty) and what is in our Solar System
I have two models for the sizes of the bodies involved (Sun-Earth-Moon). A basketball is a good approximation for the Earth, with a tennis ball being the Moon. The Sun would be a 9 story building and 2 miles away – no model for that. The other is a 1″ Earth and 0.25″ Moon wooden bead or laser cut discs (0.27″ would be better). These are used to make a necklace. Students color in the Earth and Moon (it is really difficult to color on a 0.25″ anything)(btw, the moon is gray/grey)
We also do a corona chalk art activity to represent what we will see for 4 minutes : A ring of light around a black circle
With the after school kids we had a little more time, so we added 2 other activities.
A couple of older students tried the messy shaving cream sun art (shaving cream in a plate, add some drops of food coloring to color as a sun (mix), level out, place piece of paper on it for a short time, pull paper off, scrape off shaving cream) VERY VERY messy. Do it on a disposable table cloth. And have gloves because food coloring will stain skin (it goes away eventually). Students probably have never used food coloring, so “just a few drops” doesnt mean anything to them.
(I didnt get any pics because my hands were a mess)
( https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/sun-paper/en/ )
We also did a paper circuit activity where the moon rotates and blocks the light (LED) of the sun.
(sorry, no pics)
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