Knoch students watch eclipse
JEFFERSON TWP — Brooklyn Johnston, 10, would have liked to join her grandmother and uncle, a scientist, in Erie to view the solar eclipse as it reached totality.
But as she waited for an announcement to be made over the intercom at Knoch Intermediate Elementary School, receive a pair of eclipse-viewing glasses and go outside with fellow students, the fifth-grade space enthusiast seemed equally excited to witness the cosmic event for the first time Monday, April 8 with classmates along the grassy hill in front of her school.
“I was very excited,” Brooklyn said in the building as she waited to be called outside with other students. “... I think the last (solar eclipse) was like in 2017 and I was only four years old, so I really didn’t get to see it.”
The next time a total solar eclipse will be visible in the United States will be in 2044, when Brooklyn will be 30 years old.
Her mother, Alana Johnston, teaches fifth grade math, science and social studies at the elementary school and said she incorporated learning activities in her classroom ahead of the event.
She said students created diagrams of the solar eclipse, discussed safety and compared and contrasted the differences between a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse.
Since she was unable to see the last solar eclipse in 2017 in the western part of the U.S., Johnston said she “has been looking forward to this day for months.”
“For most students and adults, this may be a (once-in-a-lifetime) event,” Johnston stated.
“I love the fact that I get to make memories with my students,” she stated.
Fifth-grader Milan Rovnan, 11, said he planned to tell his parents about the eclipse as soon as he got home.
“I didn’t know what an eclipse actually was, but then my mom told me about it and I thought it’d be pretty cool to watch,” he said.
“I don’t even think my parents know about (the solar eclipse),” he said.
Already looking to the future, Brooklyn said she plans to fly to Montana to watch the next solar eclipse. For now, Brooklyn watched from her elementary school as the moon passed between the Earth and the sun.
Each student, wearing a pair of glasses, pointed to the sky as the moon’s silhouette seemed to obscure the sun’s brightness, and the sky momentarily darkened — not as much as it did in Erie — but enough for students to exclaim, “Goodbye sun!”
