TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — To celebrate the partial eclipse Saturday, the Terre Haute Children’s Museum held an event to teach children about this phenomenon.

The partial eclipse was visible in the early afternoon on Saturday, and inside the Children’s Museum, kids got the opportunity to learn about all that goes into an eclipse. This is important because an event like this is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for most people.

Renee Henry is the director of education at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum, and she talks about how they are using this uncommon occurrence to promote science to local students.

“Each of us can be a scientist. It doesn’t have to be someone in a lab coat or somebody with goggles on. It can be any one of us to observe the natural world,” said Henry.

The Children’s Museum will continue eclipse education and exhibits ahead of a total solar eclipse that will take place in 2024. She also wanted to express how much of an impact these few minutes of darkness are going to affect the world around us.

“It is going to be so impactful to everything around us. Spiders are going to take down their webs as if it were nighttime. The birds are going to go nest. The temperature is going to drop about ten degrees. It is almost going to seem uncomfortable because of how many things are going to happen in such a short amount of time,” added Henry.

Terre Haute– and other communities around the Wabash Valley– will be in the path of totality for the solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024.