Total Solar Eclipse
Grades 5-8: Interactive livestream
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | 8:30 - 9:15 am PT (10:30 - 11:15 am CT)
Prepare to be dazzled! Eclipses are spectacular phenomena that scientists are studying to learn about life and the solar system around us. How do eclipses affect plants, animals, and all life on Earth? What are ways to view eclipses safely from your school, park, or home? How can you be a community scientist and help share observations with others?
Join us for this interactive livestream on Wednesday, April 3, to *prepare* for viewing the next visible eclipse in the Americas, which occurs on Monday, April 8. To determine if your hometown can witness the eclipse, check out the eclipse shadow path. A total solar eclipse will darken a 115-mile-wide swath from Mexico to Eastern Canada, traversing the United States from Texas to Maine in the process.
This livestream is geared towards 5th-8th grade classes, but all are welcome.
Registration is now closed, but don't fret! You can watch the recording by the afternoon of the broadcast.
How does it work?
This program lasts approximately 45-minutes, is taught by a team of professional educators, and is broadcast to multiple classes at the same time via YouTube Live.
This program also works well for classes who meet asynchronously because the recording will be shared.
Materials Needed
Students will need a pencil and a piece of paper to sketch.
Extension Activities
Use these specially designed activities to help your class prepare to observe the solar eclipse!
This program supports the Next Generation Science Standards
Science & Engineering Practices:
Developing and Using Models: Develop and use a model to describe phenomena.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Represent data in graphical displays (bar graphs, pictographs and/or pie charts) to reveal patterns that indicate relationships.
Crosscutting Concepts:
Patterns:
5th Grade: Patterns can be used to make predictions.
Middle School: Patterns can be used to identify cause-and-effect relationships.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
5.ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System: The orbits of Earth around the sun and of the moon around Earth, together with the rotation of Earth about an axis between its North and South poles, cause observable patterns.
MS.ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars: Patterns of the apparent motion of the sun, the moon, and stars in the sky can be observed, described, predicted, and explained with models.
MS.ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System: This model of the solar system can explain eclipses of the sun and the moon. Earth’s spin axis is fixed in direction over the short-term but tilted relative to its orbit around the sun. The seasons are a result of that tilt and are caused by the differential intensity of sunlight on different areas of Earth across the year.
Connection & technology information
A week before the session, registered parties will receive an email containing the unique YouTube Live destination for the broadcast. If you registered on behalf of multiple classes, forward this along to your buddy teachers.
We highly recommend testing—in advance of the program date—whether the device you plan to use can access YouTube Live. If you can see our Live Penguin Cam, you should also be able to watch other Academy livestreams.
Sorry! The Academy cannot control your district’s security settings.
If you or your students cannot access the Extension Activities tab above, you must contact your IT department to whitelist this website.
If you or your students’ district devices cannot access YouTube Live or YouTube videos, you can instead play the embedded Recording, which we will post within 48 hours of the broadcast.
Our programs are designed so that students can participate asynchronously; all interactive aspects such as Mentimeter polls and Padlet student submissions remain active through the semester.
If you have questions or need us to resend the email (check your junk folder first!), please contact us at distancelearning@calacademy.org. We recommend adding that email address to your contacts to help ensure our messages are accepted by your district's email domain.