Local students awed by eclipse
Awestruck. That was the feeling many across Yuma County and the continental United States expressed as a total solar eclipse occurred. Yuma County residents were treated to a partial eclipse, with about 60 percent of the sun blocked, according to data from NASA.
“I think the eclipse is so cool. It’s cool that the solar eclipse is real,” said Gabri-
el, a kindergartner at Alice Byrne Elementary School, who was experiencing his first solar eclipse.
Nearly every school and preschool in Yuma County had a presentation or lesson about the eclipse, according to social media posts, and thanks to parents and community members, many schools were able to purchase high-quality solar viewers for students.
Alice Byrne secondgrade teacher Kate Hazen thought of the eclipse over the summer and set up a crowdfunding effort on DonorsChoose.org, a wellknown site used by many schools across the U.S. The project was funded in less than one day, with an anonymous donor from Virginia, Tom’s of Maine
and parents contributing the bulk of the funds.
“We ordered 400 and I wish I had ordered 800,” Hazen said Monday morning as the moon was blocking part of the sun’s rays.
Every student and teacher at the school was given a pair, and Hazen said, “I wish I had them to give to everyone who works here and parents who have shown up.”
About 350 students, plus many parents, community members and school board members, kept their eyes (covered, of course) on the sky as the celestial event went on above.
Yuma County’s 4-H Ambassadors came to the school last week and read stories and did hands-on activities and helped students with a project they could take home, said Hazen and Principal Juli Peach.
“The kids are so excited,” Hazen said before the 10:28 a.m. transit. “They’re acting like little scientists today. They’ve got the big thermometer out because the temperature’s supposed to drop.”
Second grader Aiden Arviso thought the eclipse was exciting.
“It was very cool. It changed every kind of minute,” he said.
Arviso took observations of the eclipse as it happened, using his solar viewers.
“It looks like, it’s almost like, half of a circle. It almost looks like a banana,” he noted.
Solar eclipses actually happen roughly about every 18 months, according to NASA, but because the moon’s orbit is a bit elliptical and sometimes moves farther or closer to the
Earth, everything has to “line up” for the event to happen. The next eclipse will be July 2, 2019 over the South Pacific Ocean before passing across Chile and Argentina.
The next solar eclipse for Yuma viewers won’t be until about Aug. 12, 2025, and that will be another partial solar event.
But today’s event will stay in students’ minds for a long time, Peach said.
“They’ll remember it forever. They’ll remember that the whole school went out. They’ll remember that they had their glasses,” she said. “They’ll remember that everybody was looking. They might not, especially in the lower grades, understand the concept entirely, but they’re going to remember the event.”