Shelton School is gearing up for a celestial spectacle unlike any other. With the rare total solar eclipse set to pass over Shelton on April 8 at 1:41 p.m., the campus is teeming with excitement as students and faculty prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. From viewing events on the Shelton football field and outside the Lower School to educational initiatives, the school's eclipse plans promise to unite science enthusiasts and curious minds in a celebration like never before. After all, Dallas won’t fall in the path of totality again for nearly 300 years.

Shelton is fortunate to receive curricula and funding from NASA’s Neurodiversity Network, which developed curriculum guides and hands-on classroom materials focused on teaching STEM concepts (specifically Heliophysics) in preparation for the total solar eclipse.

Students and staff will be equipped with eclipse glasses, thanks to a generous donation by Shelton grandparent and optometrist Dr. Arnold Stokol. 

• Lower School students will study what causes an eclipse, how can something small cover up something smaller, eclipse safety and how to make pinhole eclipse viewers.
• Middle School students will learn eclipse safety, use 3D and 2D models to describe what happens to cause an eclipse and make pinhole viewers; some classes will extend the lessons and make simple sundials and look at the magnetic properties of the sun and Earth. 
• In twelfth-grade Earth & Space Science, twelfth-grade Physics II and eleventh-grade Physics, students will have a class lecture about how the Earth, moon and sun interact and how those interactions can cause a solar eclipse. The concept of a solar eclipse will also be reinforced with videos, an app on the cell phone that follows the eclipse and activities supplied by NASA. Students will use Solar Science curricula from NASA to learn about the physical features of the sun, how eclipses happen and safe eclipse viewing. 

Eclipse facts and safety will also be presented on the announcements as well as by science teachers.