Science Through Shadows
Engaging students in video production about how solar eclipses affect the moon's shadow.
Team Mission
The Science through Shadows project team engages students in the production process for creating short videos that show how the shadow of the moon will appear during the 2023 and 2024 eclipses, as well as the shadows of distant asteroids and Kuiper belt objects that cross the earth as they occult stars. Videos are produced in full-dome format for planetariums, for flat screens, and in social media formats.
What does your team hope to achieve?
Science through Shadows aims to achieve the following goals:
- Help prepare Americans for the solar eclipses: how to view them safely, the difference between total and annular eclipses, and the cause of eclipses
- Use the eclipses to help build understanding of heliophysics and the importance of studying the sun
- Show how ground-based occultation measurements, some of which are made via citizen science, are used in asteroid studies
- Interest students, including those from underserved communities, in STEM careers
We will engage students in the video production process through partnerships with museums in Oakland, California and Detroit, Michigan. Other partners, including NASA Astro Camp Collaborative Partners and the Houston Museum of Nature and Science, will receive a portable planetarium that they will use to share our videos and other science lessons to audiences not previously served by planetariums.
