What better way to celebrate eclipses than across cultures? Explore myths of solar and lunar eclipses from ancient cultures like the Chinese, Ancient Greek, Mesoamerican, Incan, Egyptian, Ancient Babylonian, and Middle Eastern. Learners conduct research and write about the importance of eclipses on ancient cultures.

Concepts

solar eclipses, ancient civilizations, ancient greece, mesoamerica, the incas, babylonia, ancient egypt, research writing

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Plan the exploration during a solar system unit or around the time of a solar or lunar eclipse

Classroom Considerations

• Requires that pupils research a myth from an ancient culture; prepare a trip to the library or set aside time to go to the computer lab or do individual research on their computers
• Middle and high schoolers are tasked with writing a two- to three-page research paper about the cultural importance that solar and lunar eclipses had on ancient civilizations

Pros

• Includes activities for elementary, middle, and high school grade levels
• Allows learners to become diverse by exploring other cultures

Cons

• None

Common Core

W.6.7 W.7.7 W.8.7 W.9-10.7 W.11-12.7