People of the past used their star knowledge to plan when to plant crops and navigate across oceans. This has become a lost art today as most people seldom look at the stars and in most cases, due to city lights, people are deprived of the wonders of the night sky. As teachers provide the learning opportunities from observations to technological models it is a perfect place to understand a total solar eclipse as yet another tool to understand the mysteries of our own star. National Education Standards indicate that 3 aspects of the current scientific view ought to be taken into account, as part of the learning required of students:
The following guide was developed to ensure that all of the suggested activities and lesson plans have their proper place within the context of the National Education Standards. The prescribed sequence has been arranged so that each area of content builds on the next. Your starting point in the guide will depend on the existing background knowledge of your student(s). Each content area of the guide has been divided in to three main sections: Education Standard, Topic, Activities.
Enjoy the Journey!
Nearly identical eclipses (total, annual, or partial) occur after 18 years and 11 days, or every 6,585.32 days (Saros Cycle).