LEGO lessons helping North Texas students learn about upcoming solar eclipse
DALLAS - Schools across North Texas are preparing students for the solar eclipse on April 8.
For a couple of teachers in McKinney and Dallas, these lessons involve LEGOs.
The students learn what a solar eclipse is through a hands-on experience.
Brick by brick, 5th-grade students at Dallas ISD's Maple Lawn Elementary School put the pieces together to create a solar eclipse.
The lesson happened ahead of the April 8th solar eclipse which will be seen in totality throughout North Texas.
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"LEGO education, everybody loves to play with LEGOs, everybody can use LEGOs. The bricks, what do you want to make, use your imagination and be creative," teacher Angela Gier said.
LEGO Education offers kits for multiple lessons on the solar eclipse.
Gier said the kits come with a motor.
Once all the pieces are finished, the students should be able to see how the moon, earth, and sun revolve, and how they line up.
"Hopefully they’ll be able to explain it to others, and hopefully when we get the motors working, you know the tilt of the earth, then they can say, ‘Hey, this is what I learned in science class today,’" Gier added.
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FOX 4 asked the students to find out what they thought of the lesson.
"The earth is where we’re at, and when the moon is in the middle and the sun is high and the moon is covering the sun, that’s why we get the little ring and that’s why we can see," one student said.
It’s safe to say the 5th graders understand.
Students at McKinney ISD are also learning a LEGO lesson on the solar eclipse.
Teacher Daniel Buhrow created the LEGO education solar eclipse lesson on how to build a mobile observatory.
"They’re learning about how they can’t just have observatories built all over the place because totality doesn’t happen everywhere. So they have to find ways to get their equipment here in order to see it as a whole," Buhrow said.
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Millions in North Texas will be able to simply step outside and see it, but others are flying halfway around the world to see it.
Both teachers say they’ve seen an increase in student engagement during the LEGO lessons.
While the students work to find the right pieces, they are also learning life lessons that go beyond the bricks.
"I love the interaction. They’re behaving, they’re problem-solving, things you wouldn’t think a LEGO brick could do," Gier said.