Students use eclipse as rare learning opportunity

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – For many young minds in Rochester, Monday’s solar eclipse ignited some curiosity.

“The solar eclipse is basically, what it’s like, the sun and then the moon goes in front of it, and it makes it shining area in the back. It’s like, ‘Woah,’” second-grader Addie marveled.

The sky may have been cloudy, but the air at Holy Spirit Catholic School was buzzing with excitement.

“This is something that is once in a lifetime opportunity for us. So, we just got to take these moments as it goes and just enjoy what we are given,” second-grade teacher Alisa Becker-Dunn said.

Becker-Dunn remembered when she got to see her first eclipse.

“I remember watching it when I was at college, but they don’t remember it. To like, explain and teach them what a phenomenon this is and how it’s a total eclipse, not partial, but a total has been a really interesting topic,” Becker-Dunn said.

At Rochester Catholic Schools, students spent weeks learning about the rare sight.

“It’s like when the moon covers over the sun or in some places it makes a ring, other places it kind of makes it depends. Really, it could be a new shape, kind of like a crescent, and it could be a big crescent, a small crescent also,” fourth-grader Kellen explained.

It won’t be until 2044 that we will experience a similar phenomenon in the sky. For that solar event, Montana and North Dakota will experience totality.

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