For the partial solar eclipse on Monday, many Springs School teachers took their students outside for the viewing, and they all stared up at the sky in amazement in their dark eclipse glasses.
Some students brought their own glasses from home while others were given the correct safety glasses by their teachers.
Middle school students learned about the solar eclipse on Friday, when they attended an assembly where Erik Schwab, a science teacher, used a beach ball to represent the sun, a globe to represent the earth, and a ball on a stick to represent the moon. He also used a light to show what would happen when the moon passed between the earth and the sun. Students watched a video and looked at a map to see which states would have a complete solar eclipse and which states would have a partial eclipse. After this assembly, they understood that East Hampton would experience an eclipse in which the sun would be 90 percent covered by the moon.
And then, it happened! On Monday, as the clock got closer to 3, the light changed and most of the sun was blocked by the moon.
“I think that seeing the solar eclipse is a beautiful experience, especially for the people who are seeing it for the first time,” said Jesenia Yuque Heras, a sixth grader.
The school’s Journalism Club went out to watch the eclipse for a second time at the end of the day since the club meets after school. “It was fun to experience the solar eclipse at school with the students,” said Danielle Hamilton, the club’s adviser. “I enjoyed being outside on such a beautiful day to have this fascinating moment.
Something fun to think about is that the current sixth graders will be 67 or 68 years old when a total solar eclipse happens on Long Island in 2079.
By Coral Borsack, Britney Pesantez, Siena Dion, and Abigail Amay, grade 6