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Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
California Wildfires
Solar Eclipse Party
Important:
Do not look at the sun without eye protection!
Do not look at the sun during the eclipse. Looking at the sun with your naked eye will permanently damage your eyesight.
- Yes! Look at your pinhole projection on the ground. Your students can view progress of the eclipse with a simple pinhole in a paper
- Yes! Look at light and shadows underneath trees. Small gaps in tree leaves act like a natural pinhole projector. Explore school grounds and look at the shadows underneath trees.
- Yes! Use solar viewing glasses to view the sun. Students only need to use solar glasses for a few seconds to check progress of the eclipse before passing the glasses along. Teachers need to closely oversee use of a limited number of glasses for a full class of students.
Know what to expect: From Bakersfield, you will see a partial eclipse. Much of the sun will not be covered and daylight will not be noticeably different. You can not see any darkness or noticeable change unless you are in the "path of totality", which is in the path of the total eclipse. Click here for a map of that path.
Teaching Resources for fun indoors and outdoors!
Parent Permission Form
(Solar Viewing Glasses)
Eclipse Journal Entry
Poke-hole Projector fun to do even if you don't go outside.
Eclipse Simulator Art Activity
Materials:
Solar Viewing glasses are in the 5th grade STEMTaught Materials *Planet modeling crate
Optional - Teachers can bring Oreo Cookies and Ritz crackers for Educational activities below
In-Class Movie
Patterns in our skies- Ancient connections
Solar Viewing Safety
Grade 5 and Grade 6 students and teachers must watch these safety videos before using the solar viewing glasses.
5th -6th Solar Viewing Glasses Safety
1. Solar Viewing Glasses must meet current requirements recomended by NASA and contain the safety label ISO 12312-2.
2. Students using glasses must be directly supervised by and adult.
3. Limit Continuous viewing time to three minutes. View the Eclipse intermittently, not continuously
4. Do not attempt to look at the sun with the naked eye
Eye Safety - Don't look at the sun
(Video For All Grades)
Do not attempt to look at the sun with the naked eye. Permanent vision damage will occur in less than two seconds. It is safest to view the eclipse without ever looking at the sun. Using a simple Poke-hole projector your students can view a projection of the eclipse on the ground.
STEMTaught Eclipse INDOOR & OUTDOOR Activities!
It's Party Time!!!
Ball games
Oreo eclipse
Safe Solar Viewing (Grades 3-6 Only)
Each of your students will love tracking the progress of the solar eclipse with an Oreo Cookie! Just twist it apart and use it to model current progress of the eclipse as it occurs. Making the cookie connection will help students understand how the sun and moon interact to make the crescent shapes that their pin hole projectors show. Eat it after the eclipse :)
Poke-hole Projector and Tree Walk
Explore and Construct
Make this fun project even if your staying indoors, it's fun to view anytime! Or go out and Watch the eclipse progress by looking at the changing crescent shapes cast by your "Poke-hole Projector" Explore outdoors just like Aristotle.
Indoors have fun making your pinhole Pictographs. Let the kids take them home to view the reflections they make in normal sun. Or Outdoors view pinhole projections during the eclipse
Looking at light in shadows on the ground by far the safest way to look at the eclipse. It's very impressive, kids love it!
1. Poke holes using a pencil tip in your "Poke-hole Projector" handout. Hold a corner of your paper firmly while you poke through.
2. Design an observation experiment. Make holes of different sizes and shapes to compare how the project the suns light onto your paper.
3. Let the kids take them home to shine a light through them with their parents or if your going outside, during the eclipse, hold your "Poke-hole Projector" facing the sun and look at its shadow for light crescent shapes. It may be helpful to use a separate sheet of paper for viewing the shadow
4. Take a walk around school grounds and look at shadows cast by trees. The sun's crescents are easier to see if you put a sheet of white paper on the ground.
Aristotle was the first person to notice and record the pokehole crescent phenomena.
"Why is it that an eclipse of the sun, if one looks at it through a sieve or through leaves, such as a plane-tree or other broadleaved tree, or if one joins the fingers of one hand over the fingers of the other, the rays are crescent-shaped where they reach the earth? Is it for the same reason as that when light shines through a rectangular peep-hole, it appears circular in the form of a cone?”
Aristotle 4th century, BC.
The Poke-hole Projector Concept
You can even use a Ritz cracker to monitor the progress of the eclipse
The moon is around 400 times smaller than the sun, and the sun is 400 times further away from the earth than the moon is. This even proportion of size and distance difference makes the moon appear to be the same size from our perspective.
Solar Eclipse Simulator Earth Moon & Sun Model
Make a model of what's going on. Learn about perspective and size.
Model and Create
Use this activity to simulate your own solar eclipse. Put on your earth hat and use your moon to cover up a large sun drawn on the whiteboard or use the 3' sun ball outside.
Perspective
INDOOR Activity!
The Relative Size and distance of the Earth and Moon
INDOOR Activity!
If Earth were a basketball then I the moon would be the size of a tennis ball 23.5' away from Earth. Have fun making this visual model with your students. Fly a small rocket ship to the moon
Ask the students how big the moon is relative to the earth. Once the size of the moon has been established, ask about the distance of the moon from the earth on this scale. Again, I start with the moon right next to the earth and ask the audience to call out "Stop!" when they think it is the right distance away. I start slowly at first, then take larger and larger steps until I approach about 23.5 feet. Let them know that the moon transcribes a big circle around the earth at this distance, taking about a month (27 days) to make the circuit and only occasionally does it line up with the sun to block out the light from our perspective on earth creating on eclipse. In this model the sun would would be about the size of a house 26 meters and it would be (1.75 miles) away!
Now have a countdown and blast the shuttle "into orbit" ready for its 3 day journey across space.
Class Party- Treats
Oreo Eclipse Tracker
Yummy Treats can help you learn too!
INDOOR Activity!
Oreo Eclipse Modeling
Model the progression of the Eclipse with an Oreo. Eat it after the maximum eclipse at 10:30. Try a vanilla one for the sun and a regular one for the moon
Understanding the crescent shape
Your students can set their own Oreo cookie in the correct position to understand how two circular objects can interact to form the various crescent shapes that they see during the eclipse.
Giant Sun Ball Games
Physical Activity
The 3' sun Ball is coming to play at your school. A fun model to teach the kids how amazingly large the sun is compared to earth
Asteroids
A giant, three foot diameter sun ball will be available for pickup in your front office. You can check it out for an hour to use it as a model sun to help with class discussions and the Eclipse simulator activity. Comparing relative sizes of the sun moon and earth is amazing! If the sun is the Three foot ball, the Earth would be the size of a pea, and the moon would be the size of a pinhead! Have students try and guess the size relationships
Size comparison of the sun and moon
It's Just for fun!
Make kids excited to be in your class! Play sun games with them to celebrate the eclipse. Here are three game suggestions:
WARNING: Do not allow children to climb on ball. Ball is only for kicking or bouncing
You will need the sun ball and a bunch of four square balls or dodge balls, and some string or three jump ropes to use as boundary lines.
1. Divide your class into two groups.
2. Set the sun on a center line to start the game.
3. Students can not touch the sun to move it, they can only throw asteroids at it to move it toward the boundary lines.
When the sun crosses a boundary line a team wins.
Sun Ball Pass
Have your class form a circle and bounce pass the giant sun ball around inside the circle. Freeform ball passing is a great way to get your class wiggles out.
Sun Ball Leap-frog
How to Play:
1. Your class lies in the grass on their backs side-by-side.
2. They pass-roll the giant sun ball over themselves and to their neighbor along the line.
3. After the ball rolls over them they get up and run to the front of the line to get the sun ball rolled over to them again.
Journal Time
I love to Write
With all you have experienced, record your thoughts and observations