‘It’s our Super Bowl’: This science teacher is going all out for the eclipse
It’s not always glamorous being a science teacher.
One of Rick Crosslin’s signature projects involves picking through owl pellets — that’s regurgitated owl food — to teach fifth-graders about the bird’s carnivorous diet. His YouTube page, where he posts gravity demonstrations and commentary on “very interesting microworms,” can be a labor of love, with some videos amassing a few dozen to a few hundred views. But on Monday, Mr. Crosslin in Indianapolis and science teachers around the country will have their moment in the sun (or, rather, out of it) with the arrival of the total solar eclipse. “It’s our Super Bowl. It’s our Taylor Swift concert,” said Mr. Crosslin, a teacher who specializes in creating hands-on science projects for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in west Indianapolis. Mr. Crosslin, 70, has gone all out for the day. He helped procure thousands of eclipse glasses for students in his district, where a majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In one D.I.Y. project, he created a celebratory mask — using a glue gun, a paper plate and shimmering tinsel — to resemble the sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere visible during an eclipse. His most ambitious project, though, was to build a giant model of the eclipse to help students visualize what happens. Based on the provided text, what is the main objective of Rick Crosslin in creating projects like building a giant model of a solar eclipse?