Total Eclipse 2017

My kids have been looking forward to the total eclipse since last January when Amalia read about it in her reading comprehension.  The best learning happens when the kids want to know about a particular topic.  The folks at Computer Gear were super nice and gave me a copy of their NASA Eclipse Guide and spectroscope that is included with the guide.  The guide is full of science experiments that teach about sun, light and the solar system.  Here are the experiments that we tried.

The NASA Eclipse Activity Guide is a great set of experiments to learn about the sun and the upcoming total solar eclipse on August 21^st 2017.  The kids love learning when it involves hands on activities.  The activity guide has space science tie-ins and bits of history as well as providing related cool facts.  Included is a “Diffraction Grating Slide” to make the Cereal Box Spectroscope.

The kids really liked making UV detecting bracelets with UV Beads.  We extended the activity to see which of our sunscreens worked best by putting sunscreen on the beads and seeing if they turned as dark of a color. An excellent experiment demonstrating why you should wear your sunscreen!

We also made the Cereal Box Spectroscope using the Diffraction Grating Slide that comes with the activity guide.  The kids liked checking out different lights. 

Over the next few weeks we plan on doing several more of the experiments in the guide to keep the kids interest in the upcoming solar eclipse.  I’m especially looking forward to the solar oven s’mores experiment and demonstrating how much heat energy the sun provides and how during the solar eclipse the temperature is expected to drop.