Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

This presentation will focus on teacher training in advance of the Great American Eclipse on April 8, 2024. I document my cross-country journey to prepare underserved communities along the eclipse path and how I followed up with them as they reflected on their incredible eclipse experiences. In fall 2022, I self-published an educator’s guide to solar eclipses. In summer 2023 I distributed Look UP, Below! free to educators in Title 1 schools (large concentrations of low-income students) alongside the centerline of the eclipse, providing science educators in these schools with a free resource and workshops encouraging them to get their students outside viewing the eclipse safely. I will share advice to those planning similar teacher training along eclipse paths in other countries.

Biography:

Deborah Skapik is a secondary teacher of physics and astronomy at Friends' Central School as well as an adjunct professor at St. Joseph's University in Pennsylvania, USA. She holds a Masters in Astronomy from the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawai'i in Manoa, and did PhD studies on the IR Butcher-Oemler effect. She is an Eclipse Ambassador and a SEAL Solar Eclipse expert as well as the author of "Look UP, Below!", a guide for educators on how to teach about solar eclipses.