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Educator Resources


The Eclipse Soundscapes (ES) Project is an informal education project. The various ES roles are great opportunities for families, science clubs, and others to participate in NASA eclipse science! As an educator, you can support your students and their families with classroom lessons and activities that will prepare your students to be ES Apprentices and Observers in or outside the classroom – depending on whether or not school is in session on eclipse day! Check out the Observer curriculum below!

This page includes many free eclipse-related lesson plans that are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and have been created in collaboration with classroom teachers. The lessons include a lesson plan, slides, handouts, and various differentiation tips and scaffolded resources that support multilingual learners at various English proficiency levels.

We continue to add lessons. So please bookmark this page and check-in regularly!

Observer Role Curriculum

Lesson Plans that complement the ES Observer role

A person sitting outside observing and taking notes on a laptop.The Observer role is great eclipse day activity for students and their families to do together. Anyone who submits their observations online will also receive a downloadable certificate! You can prepare your students to be Eclipse Soundscapes Observers with these lessons. Then invite your students and their families to be Eclipse Soundscapes Observers as a family activity to do at home on eclipse day! We hope you will encourage your students to submit their observations via the webform on the Observer Role page or have your students bring in their notes after the eclipse and submit observations as class activity! When people submit their observations on the Observer Role page, they are contributing to NASA eclipse science!

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?

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

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

Lesson Plan: Nature during a Solar Eclipse

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

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

Lesson Plan: Multi-sensory Observing

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

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

Home Extension Eclipse Day Activity & Post-eclipse Data Literacy Activity

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"Do Now" Activities

The first step in a great lesson is a “Do Now”– a short activity that you have written on the board or that is waiting for students as they enter.  It often starts working before you do.  While you are greeting students at the door, or finding that stack of copies, or erasing the mark-ups you made to your overhead from the last lesson, students should already be busy, via the Do Now with scholarly work that prepares them to succeed. In fact, students entering your room should never have to ask themselves, “What am I supposed to be doing?” That much should go without saying. The habits of a good classroom should answer, “You should be doing the Do Now, because we always start with the Do Now.” (“Do Now” Explanation Source: Teach Like a Champion, 2023)

Drawing of a round moon partially covering a round yellow sun.

DO NOW: Multi-sensory Eclipse Observations

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

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All Lesson Plans

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

Lesson Plan: Multi-sensory Observing

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

Read More

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

Lesson Plan: Nature during a Solar Eclipse

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

Read More

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?

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

Read More

The Moon appears as a black disk and the Sun is a fiery ball of swirling red and orange. In this image, the Moon is slowly moving out of the Sun’s way. It blocks only a small area on the right side of the Sun.

Lesson Plan: What is a Solar Eclipse

Created in collaboration with Tracey Kline, Lynn Public Schools, Lynn MA

Read More

LESSON FEEDBACK

We want to hear from you! If you used any of these lesson plans or resources, please submit feedback via a very short form! It should only take less than 5 minutes!

Submit Lesson Plan Feedback

Official NASA Partner

Eclipse Soundscapes is an enterprise of ARISA Lab, LLC and is supported by NASA award No. 80NSSC21M0008.

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