Thursday, August 10, 2017

Solar Eclipse First Day of School

Space.com's app Eclipse Safari Interactive Guide
My first day of school is the TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE DAY! We have the whole school geeking out over this quirk of cosmic geometry!



My first day of school plans are part of this week's Sunday Funday. Click the photo for all the details!

Although I wish we had a few days with kids before this huge event, I am super excited for an unforgettable first day of school! There are so many great activities and resources out there for the total solar eclipse but I was limited because we will only have students a couple of hours before the viewing. I suggested skipping lunch but the powers that be think they need food! Even though we are making solar ovens to cook hot dogs! We are going to start the day with an assembly to welcome them back to school and to show a quick video on what makes a total solar eclipse so amazing. Then the Solar Eclipse Fest will get started!



One of our awesome math teachers was able to sweet talk Pizza Hut into donating 400 pizza boxes for our solar ovens! Thank you Pizza Hut! A local restaurant donated a huge roll of tin foil. We will have students put these together first thing so they can be put outside to cook their hot dogs.

Other activities include a human sundial using sidewalk chalk, art with sun art paper, making bracelets out of UV beads, and constructing paper pinwheels.

We will also have solar experiments set up so they can collect temperature data. We will take data from things like a solar panel with a voltage meter, white/black paper, black and silver cans filled with  rocks, soil, water, and sand.



We will be using NASA's Globe Observer app to observe the clouds and temperature during the eclipse. This is part of NASA's citizen science project to record observations. The data collected by students will be used worldwide by scientists to study the effects of the eclipse. How cool!



NASA's website has an enormous amount of information, activities, guides, and lots more.



Make sure your glasses are NASA certified and get outside to view the Great American Total Solar Eclipse! Happy first day of school! Hope you have the best year ever!




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