Observer Lesson Plans

female presenting white woman with two young white children outside with notebooks

Volunteer Science: ES Observer Role

A group of children with adults observing and taking notes in nature.

Lesson Plan: Multi-sensory Observing


Bee clinging to the stem of a flower as the Sun sets behind it.

Lesson Plan: Nature during a Solar Eclipse


The moon’s black disk completely covers the sun. Now, in the absence of the sun’s full light, its massive outer corona is revealed. Uniquely visible during a full eclipse, grand flourishes of light called helmet streamers extend in all directions behind the moon’s black disk. At the edge of the moon, the helmet streamers are intensely bright, fading to wisps of ghostly white as they stretch across space, far from the moon, like flower petals.

Lesson Plan: What and When is Solar Eclipse Maximum?