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At 12:39 p.m. April 8, as the moon took its first bite of the sun, a group of Craigmont High School students looked up at the dome of the school’s planetarium to watch a video showing them exactly what would happen over the course of the day’s solar eclipse.
This time, it wasn’t the “missed opportunity” school staff sensed during the last solar eclipse in 2017, when Craigmont’s planetarium was still in disrepair.
Following a successful fundraising campaign several years ago, the Raleigh community jewel has become operational again, allowing students to visualize the perfect alignment of the sun, Earth, and moon that makes a solar eclipse happen.
The Craigmont planetarium is a one-of-a-kind offering in Memphis’ public school system. And it’s an example of how school building improvements can enrich student learning. Since the restoration, science teacher Wayne Oellig has been able to teach a new Earth and space sciences class. Enrollment in the course is maxed out, he said, and more students want to be able to take the class.