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April 8, 2024By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
WORCESTER – Monday’s solar eclipse got Catholic school students looking up.
Venerini Academy’s gym was abuzz as students, some wearing hand-colored hats for the occasion, sat on the floor awaiting permission to file outdoors and have a look.
School nurse Katherine Donnelly first gave them brief instructions about being responsible during this exciting event, waiting until they were outside to don the dark eclipse glasses, which were to protect their eyes when viewing the sun.
“I found it,” announced one student, once they were outside.
“I can see it,” said another.
“It’s like a bite of cookie,” observed first-grader Evan Clemmer. Later he admitted he hadn’t come up with that idea: “I’m not the first one that said it, but I just tried to say it again.”
It wasn’t just the eclipse itself that fascinated him and classmate Gavin McLaughlin.
“Technology, but plastic,” they commented, examining the glasses.
“I think it’s made out of rubberish plastic – the part you see through,” Gavin declared.
“How can you see through tinfoil?” Evan wondered, giving his take on the lens material. “How can it be that strong, that it can block the sun?”
“I thought it was really cool, because you didn’t see anything else in the sky except the sun,” which looked like an orange dot, sixth-grader Paige Andreoli told The Catholic Free Press, as students were preparing to leave for the day.
She said they learned about phases in science class, and it was “cool” to think about what phase the eclipse was in when students were watching it.
Her classmate Ellie Guertin said they got to “live” what they had learned, and it was “really cool to get the opportunity to look.”
“We gave each teacher a packet of information” about eclipses, to use as they chose, said Beth Chase, principal. She said she also sent teachers a video and had students read facts about solar eclipses over the intercom.
Music teacher Niki Beaudry said she wants to do after-the-fact projects with students, examining the effect of light and dark on sound, making connections with the environment and communities.
