Eclipse captures students’ attention
■ The event lasted nearly three hours Monday in Siloam Springs.
The solar eclipse captured the world’s attention Monday and provided a learning experience for students in Siloam Springs.
The eclipse was the first in 99 years to cross the entire United States. It began in Siloam Springs at 11:42 a.m., reached its maximum at 1:11 p.m., when 92 percent of the sun was blocked, and ended at 2:40 p.m., according to NASA’s interactive eclipse map, available at eclipse2017.nasa.gov.
Students across the school district watched the eclipse using safety glasses and a variety of viewing devices.
Siloam Springs Middle School students poured outside onto the field at Glenn W. Black Stadium to observe the eclipse starting at about 12:45 p.m. Donna Smith, a middle school science teacher, said the timing of the eclipse was ideal because her students are set to begin studying the Earth, sun and moon this week.
Some students in her science classes brought eclipse glasses or solar viewers, while others made solar viewers using cereal boxes. Smith also made a large solar viewer from a pair of binoculars on a tripod that reflected a larger image of the eclipse onto a cardboard on the ground.
While observing the eclipse, middle school science students filled out data collection sheets complete with sketches of shapes of eclipse as it progressed and observations about the temperature, light and even sounds.
Eighth-grade student Sydney Grefphenreed said she spent quite a bit of time studying the eclipse at school and on her own at home. She was especially interested to learn about previous eclipses, she said.
Seeing the eclipse firsthand after learning about it made it seem much more real than just reading about it, Grefphenreed said.
“Experiencing it is a lot better than just learning about it in the classroom,” she said.
High school students also incorporated the eclipse into their science lessons, according to science teacher Barbara Hannah. All students were released at 1:05 p.m. for a fire drill and watched the eclipse from the school parking lot.
Hannah said the school purchased enough solar eclipse glasses for every two students to have one pair. Many science classes also made pinhole viewers and distributed them for other classrooms to share.
Hannah’s pre-Advanced Placement physical science class designed six large solar eclipse viewers using pegboards. Students taped off various holes in the pegboards to create messages in the reflections. Gene Collins’ animal science classes helped with the construction of the viewers by cutting the pegboards to size, adding two-foot-long legs and attaching them to particle board.
“The new Arkansas science standards include integrating more Earth Science into all the science courses, so it was perfect timing, really,” she said.
The eclipse offered students a chance to see first-hand why an eclipse happens during the new moon phase of the lunar
A few expressed disappointment that it didn’t get darker. But the drop in temperature, the wind that accompanied it, and the eerie, twilight-like light produced was not lost on anyone. Barbara Hannah SSHS science teacher
cycle, Hannah said. Many students asked where the moon was and why they couldn’t see the moon before the eclipse. Once they thought about it, they made the connection, she said.
“A few expressed disappointment that it didn’t get darker,” Hannah said. “But the drop in temperature, the wind that accompanied it, and the eerie, twilight-like light produced was not lost on anyone.”
Hannah said she is looking forward to the April 8, 2024 eclipse, which will block 97 percent of the sun in Siloam Springs.