Students in Nova Scotia will get to watch the eclipse on Monday safely and for free.
The Discovery Centre and the Department of Education will give eclipse viewing glasses to every provincial school.
Levi Thorne, a student in a mixed fifth and sixth grade class at Mount Edward Elementary, says he’s looking forward to the eclipse but he’s also a little worried.
“I’m kind of scared to look at it because I don’t know if the glasses will work,” he says.
The Discovery Centre says the glasses are ISO-certified and will work. They protect the eyes from the sun’s light and reduce ultraviolet and infrared radiation.
The Discovery Centre will host a community viewing event the day of the eclipse at 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
“We know that this is a fairly rare phenomena,” says Jillian Phillips, manager of science education with the Discovery Centre.
“We really wanted to make sure that folks are able to see this in their lifetime and see this safely and be able to look at the sun without any sort of damage,” says this person.
The last total solar eclipse visible in Nova Scotia was in 1970 and the next one won’t happen until 2079, according to the Discovery Centre.
The Discovery Centre visited a class at Mount Edward Elementary on Wednesday to talk about the eclipse.
Seeing kids learn firsthand about the eclipse is the best part of the visit, says Phillips.
“Really seeing the excitement, the enthusiasm, the application of science — these students know so much more than we sometimes give them credit for,” says Phillips.
The students started learning about the eclipse as part of their regular Grade 6 curriculum, which involves space and the solar system, according to Diane Lloyd, the classroom teacher. She says the class watches news clips every morning. They love news and factual information, and the eclipse coverage made the students’ interest grow even more, she says.
As a teacher, the best thing she can do is follow what the kids want, says Lloyd. That keeps them interested, so it was easy to dig deeper into learning about it, she says.
Lloyd says the students are concerned for their own safety. They were interested initially in how looking at the eclipse could damage their eyes.
“The discovery that we were getting these glasses from the Discovery Centre was pretty huge. They were pretty happy [that] they’re going to be able to watch it,” she says.
She says working with the Discovery Centre to get the glasses and extra learning materials is an amazing opportunity.
“It’s gone beyond what I hoped, and the kids are excited, and I’m excited to share it.”
–With files from Jacob Moore