Numerous school districts across the Western Pennsylvania region have altered their Monday schedules in anticipation of the solar eclipse.
The Plum Borough, Quaker Valley and Highlands school districts have all canceled classes for students.
The Allegheny Valley School District will have a flex day, allowing students to work from home. And the Hampton Township school board meeting was moved from Monday to Tuesday.
Several other school systems will release students early, including Avonworth, South Park, Sto-Rox and West Jefferson Hills. Many of the districts opting for an early dismissal said they were doing it so that students had the time and opportunity to view the eclipse safely.
“This decision has been made out of an abundance of caution to mitigate potential risks associated with viewing the solar eclipse,” the South Park School District wrote on its Facebook page. “It will allow students to return home safely well before the total solar eclipse occurs later in the afternoon.”
The Pittsburgh Public Schools will remain open and on a regular schedule, but Superintendent Wayne N. Walters said many city teachers planned to use the eclipse as a learning opportunity.
“Many PPS teachers will be incorporating the solar eclipse into their lesson plans across various subjects,” Walters wrote in a letter to district families. “We believe that experiencing such events firsthand can ignite curiosity and inspire a lifelong love of learning in our students.”
Three city schools will utilize resources provided by Arizona State University to collect eclipse data that will be shared with NASA.
Teachers from Carmalt PreK-8, Langley PreK-8 and Pittsburgh Classical Academy were among 19 educators across the country selected by the university’s Center for Education through Exploration and Eclipse Soundscapes, a NASA citizen science project, to receive a stipend, training on eclipse observation, and eclipse-viewing glasses for their students, according to a news release from Arizona State.
The university said students at the schools participated in three digital explorations designed by the NASA Infiniscope project called Kingdom in Peril. The explorations use NASA resources designed to support students in constructing knowledge about eclipses.
Alison Zemba, an eighth grade science teacher at Pittsburgh Classical Academy, said in the news release that she was excited for the opportunity afforded to her students through the ASU-NASA partnership.
“I have been implementing Infiniscope’s Kingdom of Peril lessons, and my students have been loving it,” she said. “They have had ‘aha’ moments and have been able to incorporate technology into learning about the sun/Earth/moon system.”
Andrew writes about education and more for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at agoldstein@unionprogress.com.