A Front-Row Seat

Our Current Events group covered a topic of astronomical proportions this month – the solar eclipse.

“This was one of the coolest topics we’ve covered, primarily because every member had a front-row seat to something that is rare,” said Andrew Haan, a developmental educator at 3LPlace who leads the Current Events group. “It was taking up the news and information space for everybody at 3L and around the country. It was a wonderful thing to witness together.”

As we usually do for the group, we covered the topic over the course of two weeks. The Friday before, we prepared – talking about what the day was going to be like to help dispel nerves, looking at an eclipse simulator online, and building eclipse viewers out of toilet paper rolls and aluminum foil. 

On the big day itself, members were all over the Northeast. Some of us watched the partial eclipse from the 3LPlace parking lot. Some watched from our backyards at home. And still others went to Maine and Vermont to see the total eclipse.

On the Friday after, we heard from our “field reporters,” members who had traveled to view the eclipse. We also marked a map showing where we had all been that day and watched news stories with footage of the eclipse.

“I had fun at watching the moon cover the sun in daylight. It was mysterious and quiet. [M]y glasses made me safe to watch,” one member told us. Another member said that it was hard to get a parking spot where they went to watch the eclipse and that a lot of people had telescopes out to view it.

“The eclipse was a great opportunity to talk about something very relatable and put ourselves into the story,” Andrew said. “We’re always looking for ways to gain familiarity with big stories and figure out how we can connect to our families, friends, and communities by sharing in these stories.”