The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will take place in North America and will be visible along a path stretching through Mexico, parts of the United States, and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. While there are many different types of eclipses, total solar eclipses are rare—The next one will not occur in North America for another 20 years! Like many others, VEX Robotics is excited about this rare and remarkable phenomenon! Here are a few fun and engaging classroom activities that you can incorporate to connect with students about the upcoming eclipse using VEX 123, VEX GO, and VEX IQ!

Activities for VEX 123

Mini Eclipse with VEX 123

This activity is inspired by the phases of a total solar eclipse, displayed in the image below. The VEX 123 Robot will play the role of the Moon during the eclipse! 

The setup is simple– Put a “Sun” in the center of a 123 Tile. The Sun should be just a little bigger than the robot itself. (You can trace the Art Ring and cut a little outside that line to make the Sun using yellow construction paper.) You can also include a printout of the moon and attach it to the top of the Art Ring on the VEX 123 Robot to make the Robot look truly lunar. 

Code the 123 Robot to travel across the Sun to make the sun/moon shapes shown in the phases above. See the video below: 

I used VEXcode 123 for this project to code the robot to move in really small increments, wait between each movement, and turn in smaller angles to create the curved path. It took careful thinking and visualizing to determine the movements, patterns, and where to position the robot. Here is the code used in the video above: 

You could also complete the activity with Touch or the Coder; instead of moving the robot in a continuous cycle, have students experiment with the positioning of the robot to recreate each phase of the eclipse individually. You can implement Mini Eclipse VEX 123 as one stand alone activity or perform each phase in real time as the eclipse is happening. Since setup is simple, the activity can be easily completed outdoors. 

Viewing The Eclipse Close Up

Take a closer look at the different stages of a total solar eclipse using the VEX 123 Robot! Students will code their robots to identify images of each stage of a total solar eclipse. 

Make cutouts of each stage of the solar eclipse and attach the cutouts to different squares of the VEX Tiles. After displaying images of the different stages of the eclipse to the class, and explaining each stage of the eclipse, have students code the robot to follow the path of each stage of the eclipse. 

You may choose to list the stages on the Tiles sequentially or mix them up as your students code the VEX 123 Robot to reach each stage of the eclipse in chronological order. 

Consider including the following stages:

Stage 1 (Partial Eclipse)

The moon’s shadow becomes visible over the Sun’s disk. First Contact occurs when the Moon’s shadow touches the Sun’s edge. 

Stage 2 (Total Eclipse Begins)

During this stage, nearly the entire disc of the sun is covered by the Moon. 

At the beginning of this stage, the light from the Sun appears broken up into “beads.” These are known as “Bailey's Beads,” named after the British scientist Francis Bailey, who discovered this phenomenon in 1836. 

Eventually, the beads disappear and form one bright spot of sunlight resembling a diamond in the sky, and the Sun’s atmosphere forms the ring’s band. Appearance of the Diamond Ring is a sign that the eclipse has almost reached totality.

Stage 3 (Totality)

The Moon completely covers the disk of the Sun. Only the Sun’s Corona is visible. The sky goes dark, temperatures fall, and wildlife often goes quiet.

Stage 4 (Total Eclipse Ends)

Also known as Third Contact, the Moon’s shadow starts moving away and the Sun reppears. Bailey’s Beads and the Diamond Ring appear again. 

Stage 5 (Partial Eclipse Ends)

The Moon stops overlapping the Sun’s disk. The shadow on the Sun gets increasingly smaller and eventually leaves the Sun. Fourth Contact occurs at the point in which the shadow leaves the Sun. 

You can add more or less images to represent the stages of the eclipse based on the needs of your students. Furthermore, consider adding timestamps for each stage to represent what time your specific area will experience each stage of the total eclipse. 

For extra support, provide students with a diagram of the different stages of a total solar eclipse like the image below: 

Students will enjoy learning about the eclipse and viewing real images, especially in areas that may not experience the eclipse firsthand. This activity would be a great opportunity to introduce students to the concept of an eclipse before the eclipse occurs. 

Activities for VEX GO and VEX IQ

Eclipse Pathfinder

Inspired by images of the path of the eclipse, drive Colonel Jo on a Code Base or a BaseBot, or build and push a Moon Buggy across a large map to replicate the path of the total eclipse! 

You can even rotate the robot in various positions to mimic the angle of the Moon! This activity can be completed as a standalone activity or in real time as the eclipse is happening. Figuring out the movement increments to drive the Robot in a specific curved path would make for fun exploration as well! 

Moon Rotation Model 

Using VEX GO or VEX IQ, have students build their own Rotating Moon that traces the path of totality of the eclipse! For setup, print a map of the path of totality such as the image in the Eclipse Pathfinder activity. Attach the map to a GO Tile with pins poked through the paper. Print out an cut an image of the Moon and attach it to the build with a pin, like this: 

The activity is open ended– Have students design and build their own rotation model of the Moon that traces the path of totality. There are SO many ways that students can do this, and this activity will be a great exercise in collaborative building and creativity! 

In this example, I used the slide beams in the kit so that I could adjust the position of the Moon as it traveled in a curved path. See the video below as an example. While the example uses a GO Kit, the activity will work just as well with either GO OR IQ. 

Day and Night STEM Lab: Solar Eclipse Adaptation

Adapt the Day and Night VEX GO Stem Lab to focus on the solar Eclipse with VEX GO or VEX IQ! In the Day and Night STEM Lab, students investigate the rotation of the Earth. So why not add the Moon into the mix to showcase the eclipse? While GO and IQ have many similar pieces, I had to make some modifications to make the build work, and I chose to use VEX IQ pieces to build the model.  

I mounted the Brain on its side so it can serve as a little platform for the Sun, then created a little basket for the motor since the IQ motor only has mounting holes on one side. But overall, this worked just like the GO build!

To add in the Moon, I used part of that motor ‘basket’ as a way to mount another long beam with a smaller gear to act as my moon.

As the Earth rotates, I can manually move the Moon in between the Earth (the styrofoam ball) and the Sun (the LED on the Optical Sensor) to create my own shadow/eclipse. You can even paint the styrofoam ball to look more like the Earth. See the eclipse in the video below: 

Students could go through the same process to create their own models of the Earth’s rotation and try different heights for the Sun and Moon and see how that impacts the shadows as well.

Also in a fun, thematic application, when I was making my VEXcode project, I named my motor and Optical Sensor based on what was being modeled (the Earth and Sun). This could help students make those connections between the behaviors in their model and the behaviors in VEXcode!

Solar Eclipse Scale Model

Guide your students to use VEX GO pieces to make a simple scale model of a solar eclipse! Your students will need to know that

• The moon is ¼ the size of the Earth 
• There are about 30 Earth diameters between the Earth and the Moon. 

Start by collecting the following materials:

• 1 yardstick 
• GO Large Beams (to make a total length of at least 33 inches once connected)
• Red Large Beams and Red Pins to connect the Large Beams
• 2 Green Beams
• 6 Red Pins
• 2 Red Connectors
• 2 Yellow Pins
• Beads, pom poms or other round objects to represent the Earth and the Moon. Your Earth object should be about 1 inch, and your Moon object should be about 1/4 inch. I used pom poms for my model.
• Adhesive dots or two-sided tape

First, connect Large Beams together to make a longer beam that is around 33 inches long.

I used:

• 2 Gray Large Beams
• 2 Black Large Beams
• 1 White Large Beam
• 1 Yellow Large Beam
• 5 Red Square Beams
• 20 Red Pins

Complete the following steps to create the model: 

Step 1

Use the Red Square Beams and Pins to connect each beam together to make a sturdy, long beam. The beam should be at least 33 inches long. As a fun challenge, encourage students to independently determine the most accurate combination of beams to create the 33 inch long beam! Students can use a yardstick to measure the accuracy of their long beam.

Step 2

Attach each Red Connector to one end of each of your Green Beams and attach the Yellow Connector to the Red Connector. Then, use your adhesive dots to attach your Earth and Moon to the Yellow Connectors. 

Step 3

Now, attach your Earth and moon to the beam you made. Because your Earth is 1 inch in diameter, you can place your moon 30 inches away from it on your beam, so your model is basically to scale. My beam is 33 inches long, so I attached my Moon on one end, then measured 30 inches from the end to attach my Earth.

Step 4

Now you are ready to test it out! Ideally, you have a nice sunny day and you can take your students outside and use the actual sun for this. A flashlight in a dark room works pretty well too.

Hold the model so that the Moon is between the Sun (or your light source) and the Earth. The Moon will cast a shadow on the Earth, showing what happens during a solar eclipse! You will likely need to play with the angle at which you are holding the model to get the best possible shadow. If you are inside and using a flashlight, have a student hold the flashlight at different distances from the Moon side of the model to test out the best shadow.

If you turn the model around so that the Earth is closest to you (between the Sun and Moon), you will have a model of a lunar eclipse, where the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon!

Note: This activity should not be completed during the eclipse. During partial or annular solar eclipses, it is never safe to look directly at the eclipse without proper eye protection. When watching a partial or annular solar eclipse directly with your eyes, you must look through safe solar viewing glasses ("eclipse glasses") or a safe handheld solar viewer at all times. Eclipse glasses are NOT regular sunglasses; regular sunglasses, no matter how dark, are not safe for viewing the Sun. Learn about total eclipse safety from NASA resources.

There are countless ways you can implement educational robotics to teach your students about the eclipse! Post your own ideas in the PD+ Community to inspire others, or sign up for a 1-on-1 Session with experts at VEX for assistance implementing any of these activities. We are excited to see how you incorporate the VEX Continuum to connect to this historic event!