Daisies in STEM - Solar Eclipse
The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 was an exciting event. Although we only experienced a partial solar eclipse it was still very impressive. Through the solar glasses the sun looked like a moon!
Naturally, our Girls Scout meeting that weekend focused on the sun. To understand the physics behind the solar eclipse phenomenon, the girls made a dynamic eclipse model from paper. They started by coloring pictures of the Sun, the Moon and the Earth.
The girls cut the colored pictures and used them to build the model. The sun was connected to Earth with a yellow strip of paper representing sunlight, and the moon was connected to earth with a black strip of paper representing the moon's shadow. When the moon passes between the Earth and the sun the moon's shadow causes a solar eclipse.
We also learned about solar energy, and there is no better way to do that than by baking pizza in a solar oven. Therefore each girl made her own solar oven from a pizza box. The pizza boxes were kindly donated by the local Round Table Pizza store.
These solar ovens are very simple to make, check my Science for Preschoolers - Solar Oven post for more information.
