By Aisha Espinosa
Staff Writer
@aishaespinosa1
As the sun sets over the Coppell High School parking lot, the telescope is set up, and students start arriving. The rest of the campus is quiet, but the Astronomy and Earth/Space Science students quickly make up a crowd, ready for a night of full of stars at the first Stargazing Party of the year.
“I try to organize as many of these as I can,” Astronomy and Earth/Space Science teacher Angela Barnes said. “It benefits my Astronomy and Earth/Space Science classes, because at the beginning of the year we are all learning astronomy.”
The astronomy students presented a range of topics, including constellations and the scales of the universe, while the ESS students moved from station to station, filling out reviews about each group.
“We present our projects about the different topics that we were assigned,” senior Vanshika Ganga said. “We also get to use the telescopes to look at the stars and the different lunar phases of the moon.”
Most groups had interactive stations, using anything from physical objects displaying scale to digital presentations and even online quizzes.
“I taught about constellations, which are really important because they can be used for navigation,” senior Melody Siebenmann said. “They also have really cool stories behind them that could still be used today.”
Her group used black paper and flashlights to display the different constellations, which other students found interesting.
“That was really cool,” senior Catherine Connolly, an ESS student, said. “I also found that the zodiac signs came from the constellations, and had really interesting stories.”
Barnes and new science teacher Gulshan Mir ended the night past 9 p.m., after all the students had stored their projects and all the hot dogs had been consumed. Barnes is hoping they can hold more of these throughout the year, as the students go more in depth about astronomy.
“My favorite part?” Barnes said. “I’m crazy about the moon. I love geeking out over the moon, and seeing students’ reactions when they see it through the huge telescope for the first time. They look in the scope, and they are just awed.”
