All Alvarado ISD students, staff to get eclipse sunglasses

The great solar eclipse is next Monday, which is also the first day of school for most of the major districts in North Texas.

Alvarado ISD is among the districts making big plans so that students can experience the event.

"It's been 99 years since we've had a total eclipse that gone from one side of the United States all the way to the other side from coast to coast,” said Janie Henderson, Alvarado ISD instructional technologist.

The eclipse will put a 70 mile wide path across the U.S. In the totality zone, total darkness for about two minutes. In North Texas, all but a narrow crescent of the sun will be blocked by the moon.

Alvarado ISD is making sure this historic event won't fade in students' memories -- all 3,600 students will have special eclipse glasses, along with teachers and staff. They'll also have ways to make pinhole projections of the eclipse without looking up at the sun.

"We have some activities too -- documentation and writing, what they saw, what they experienced because we're big on the five senses for science,” said first grade teacher Linda Quiles.

Ninth grade science teacher Amanda Dixon will use the Globe Observer app with her science students to record data.

“We'll be taking some measurements on air temperature and cloud cover. Through the app we upload these measurements to NASA and become part of the study of what happens during the eclipse,” Dixon said.

Alvarado ISD is also making a time capsule of the event.

In 2024 another solar eclipse will cover the U.S. For that, North Texas will see the total eclipse.

“Maybe just have pictures of them in their solar glasses when they're in kindergarten,” Henderson said. “Seven years from now, pull that out to do some comparisons and then participate in totality."

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