PLAIN CITY, Ohio — The Jonathan Alder School District has canceled class this Monday, allowing students, faculty, and staff who live in the Plain City area to enjoy the total solar eclipse.
An event was held Friday night at Canaan Middle School to continue to get students excited about what’s to come.
"We've been talking about it for months,” said Emily Byers, a STEM facilitator for the district.
"Just getting to learn about it is really fun,” said third grader Camryn Brown.
"A lot of people don't get to see this, so it's a really cool event to witness,” said fifth-grader Kevin Harrison.
Amazon Web Services hosted the event at the school, featuring all things space, science and fun.
"We wanted to make sure we had lots of hands-on activities for students,” said Hannah Rings, a STEM educator.
Each room through the school included a different exhibit, from a solar system to learn about the planets, to robots, to virtual reality space experiences, even “stomp rockets. We show the kids how to put stomp rockets together out of paper and tape. We take it outside, we pump it up, hit a button, and off they go,” said Mike Lester, a retired Kennedy Space Center NASA engineer.
Lester flew into town for the event, stressing the importance of getting kids excited about STEM-related fields.
"Not every child's gonna get excited, but the ones that do make it all worth it,” Lester said.
"It's been a lot of fun because the kids are so interested in it,” Rings said.
"This has encouraged me to think a lot more about space and pursuing a science career,” Harrison said.
"I've read a lot of books and watched a lot of videos in class,” Brown said.
Their teachers said they’ve been paying close attention and asking lots of questions.
"I think I've been asked more often, 'why do we have to wear glasses?'" Rings said.
"This is not gonna happen again for a really long time so it's a pretty special thing,” Byers said.