Students across the Colton Joint Unified School District had a chance to experience a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 as they viewed the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse.
From elementary to high school, students viewed the eclipse using a variety of devices, from official eclipse glasses or telescopes set up by teachers, to homemade eclipse viewers constructed of used cereal boxes. Joe Baca Middle School even had an eclipse “selfie station” set up – using a reflection of the eclipse on a wall as the backdrop.
All students were alerted to the importance of safely observing the eclipse. Safety notices were sent home, posted on social media, and one school even produced a safety video for students to watch ahead of time.
Students were fascinated as they witnessed the moon move in front of the sun, creating a slight darkness and even, as students at Mary B. Lewis Elementary School noticed, a slight drop in temperature as the sun became obscured.
In addition to enjoying an astronomical anomaly, students also practiced their scientific skills, making hypotheses about what they would see, recording observations, then discussing and charting what happened and why.
Teachers noted that they got something out of the experience as well.
“I love that my job is one that allows me to be just as excited about learning as my students,” noted Lewis Elementary School 6th grade teacher Kathryn Erickson. “How many times in a teacher’s career do you get to say we had ‘eyes-on’ science today? It may end up being a once-in-a-lifetime experience for my students, and I am glad that I was able to foster their excitement and learning.”