This year, Springfield Township encountered unexpected natural phenomena. First were the aftershocks caused by the east coast earthquakes, shaking the district and surrounding areas on April 5th. The initial rumble was clocked as a 4.8-magnitude earthquake, and it is estimated that over 42 million people felt the quake throughout the northeast.

Fortunately, no deaths, injuries, or structural damage were reported. As time has progressed, officials have studied building codes and structure plans to ensure that minimum harm comes from these natural occurrences. The only impact the earthquake provided to our school was a light shaking, comparable to the feeling of standing above a moving subway train. Regardless, many students were shocked. Junior Reagan Maguire noticed that “everybody was looking around confused,” and junior Carlos Cejas was “just finishing his chem test,” when he was surprised to notice “the table was shaking.”

Three days later, on April 8th, the nation witnessed a total solar eclipse, which hadn’t been seen in nearly a decade. Luckily, Pennsylvania was placed right in the path of the eclipse, providing an extraordinary view of our solar system’s celestial mechanics. The last time there was a solar eclipse like this in the Philadelphia region was in 1478 and it is expected to not have another full eclipse in this region for another 350 years. This experience was truly once in a lifetime and was a unifying event that brought the school and community together and provided a new experience for thousands of Springfield residents.

Mrs. Borgmann “ate Sunchips and watched it with her children,” and sophomore Hazel Synnestvedt sat “on the bleachers by the baseball field with kids from the STEM club.” They both thought of it as a “really cool memorable experience” that provided some “cool pictures.”