What’s New Under the Sun? 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Activities to Share with Advanced Students

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On April 8th, the moon will totally eclipse the Sun, and its shadow will sweep across the U.S. Knowing that many of us will want to capitalize on this stellar event (pun intended), I’ve shared some unique and novel activities and resources that can be used as small group or whole-class experiences.

AN ENGAGING HOOK

This introductory activity includes a ready-to-share slide show and a riddle-within-a-puzzle, a fun way to introduce a topic (PDF here). Students will first attempt to solve a word search puzzle without a word bank! They will look for words associated with an eclipse and will probably find a few (moon, solar, shadow, sun). Following the teacher activity guide, the teacher will then present short clips (embedded in the slide show) to introduce additional words. After finding all of the terms, students will be led to discover a hidden riddle and its solution.

SOLAR ECLIPSE ACTIVITIES ~ TEACHER GUIDE (PDF Download)

ECLIPSE in a CUP and other models

In my search for meaningful activities, I looked for a small-scale model students could make that depicts a solar eclipse most accurately and requires some problem-solving. This one from Exploratorium is my choice! Students will use simple materials and do some measuring and math to create this model. I like the fact that they could also take it home to share with their families (minus the tennis ball, I would assume). You might like to check out and compare it to this one from Generation Genius. If you have time to do a grand-scale model (which involves going out on your playground or field), your students could work in groups to try it out!

ECLIPSE SIMULATOR

Students can view the path of totality for the April eclipse using this eclipse simulator. It simulates the appearance of the sky at various locations as well as the umbral shadow as it sweeps across the U.S. (see second picture below). Use these instructions (also found in the “hamburger menu” at the top right) to learn about all the tools you can use to manipulate your views. To just view the path itself, you can use this interactive Google map.

The map below is FUN! It shows cities and towns across the U.S. that have eclipse-related names such as Shadowland (Texas) Moon (Oklahoma) and Corona (Missouri). If you are not located in the Path of Totality, you and your students could choose one of these locations to enter into the simulator. Click on the map to find additional ones such as a map of all the national parks within the path of totality

Credit to Michael Zeiler, Great American Eclipse, www.greatamericaneclipse.com/.

VIEW FROM A PLANE

Students may know that Delta Airlines created a special flight from Austin, Texas to Detroit, Michigan on April 8th that will give passengers a view of the total eclipse from above the clouds. The flight will travel up the path of totality. Passengers paid from $750 to $1200 for a seat on the flight, and the tickets sold out within 24 hours, so Delta created a second flight to meet the demand. The video below is embedded in the introductory slide show and could lead to interesting questions and discussions. How fast will the umbra speed across the Earth? How fast does an airplane fly?

CELESTIAL SHOWDOWN

It could be fun to challenge your students to a mini think-a-thon with the thinking challenges at each station related to the 2024 eclipse. The idea is that students team up and have 5 minutes at each station (rounded up from the approximate number of minutes in the total eclipse experience). You can also use these activities separately in the days before April 8th. In the activity guide, I’ve shared instructions and printables for the following five activities:

  • Cosmic Creativity – illustrate as many items within categories as you can in the time given.
  • Cosmic Computation – solve as many math problems as possible in the time allotted
  • Stellar Spellers – write as many 4-letter + words from a given phrase as possible
  • Where’s the Sun? – respond to clues with words that contain the letters “sun”
  • Where Will They Watch? – solve logic problems about families who will travel to the path

For fun, end your showdown with a moon pie or oreo cookie snack (students can use their cookies to create the look of a partial eclipse).

ANIMAL BEHAVIORS

Students might be interested in what researchers have discovered about the behavior of animals during total solar eclipses and the studies that will take place on April 8th. The 3-minute video below explains more and you can find additional information HERE.

If you have special lesson plans or other resources you can share, please visit our Facebook group and join our discussions!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES – there are so many!



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