Charles Fulco

Abstract

No Child Left Inside!: Revelations and Reflections on 9 Years of Eclipse Education

Abstract

On a personal level, I felt that the state of science education as a whole in the U.S. was failing its students. Many students, teachers and even administrators showed little understanding of eclipses, and held fast to misinformation (which I found quite ironic is our age of instant and worldwide communication). Even with the implementation of national and state standards, test scores and content knowledge were lower than those of other, similarly “developed” countries and I wanted to discover what was driving this phenomenon.

In 2015, I realized that with the help of the upcoming eclipses, I could obtain a sabbatical year from school and visit districts in need of increased science scores, science literacy and performance skills. To this end, I created a program I called  No Child Left Inside!, with lesson plans and professional development workshops to bring the eclipses to students, teachers, and administrators via investigations, experiments, lessons and resources, also accessible to everyone online, as a way of demonstrating how and explaining why every student needs to see an eclipse outdoors, not watching from a screen in a classroom with the window shades down.

From the feedback received from schools and other institutions, I was pleased to discover that many districts who were not initially allowing their classrooms to view the eclipse outdoors actually changed their policies, once facts were presented to them.

In my talk, I will: a) explain my findings; and, b) offer possible solutions to this educational dilemma, and explain how we can use my U.S. eclipse education experiences to educate the next generations of students in a more productive and efficient manner, beginning with the next two totalities in 2026 and 2027.

Bio

Charles Fulco is a science teacher at The United Nations International School in NYC and a NASA Solar System Ambassador. He was an Education Outreach Coordinator with the AAS 2017 and 2024 Solar Eclipse Task Forces and creator of No Child Left Inside!, a program that was designed to promote eclipse awareness and now, science literacy across U.S. classrooms. He is also a long-time member of DarkSky.org.

Charles is a veteran presenter at science conferences. He has collaborated with Buzz Aldrin’s ShareSpace.org program, bringing Mars education to classrooms. He has been an eclipse-science contributor to Time.com, South Carolina Educational TV, NSTA’s Science & Children journal, National Wildlife Federation, Dig, and other magazines and journals. A highlight of his teaching career was his selection to the Northup-Grumman Zero-G Flights of Discovery program. His interest in total solar eclipses has taken him to four continents to observe 6 total and 2 annular solar eclipses, while preparing the local schools on eclipse content and observing techniques. He also worked with prison systems to prepare the inmates and staff for the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses.

In his monthly program, Science@Home Interview, Charles has talked with many guests from the world of science while taking live questions from viewers. His guests have included Jay Pasachoff, Fred Espenak, Mike Brown, Glenn Schneider, Jay Anderson and many from outside the field of astronomy.

Charles works with other schools as a science consultant and professional development facilitator, promoting science literacy via standards-based learning and environment-focused educational practices, with special emphasis on assisting underserved, incarcerated, marginalized and underperforming districts.