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12 October 2001

Project ASTRO: Bringing Astronomy into the Classrooms

Project ASTRO is a national program to help improve the teaching of astronomy and physical science in general in 4th through 9th grade classrooms (and youth groups). Professional or amateur astronomers are linked with local teachers or youth group leaders, and "adopt" a classroom or community group, visiting 4 to 10 times per year. Partners at each regional site are trained together at 2-day workshops, and then develop an individualized program to share the excitement of modern astronomy and the power of the scientific method with their class or group.

Project ASTRO is a program of the non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Founded in 1889, the society is now the largest general astronomy membership organization in the U.S., and has a special focus on public and teacher education. Support for establishing Project ASTRO came from the National Science Foundation, NASA's Offices of Space Science and Education, and the Banbury Fund. Currently, each Project ASTRO site must find its own support, and welcomes contributions from interested individuals, corporations, and foundations.

As of Fall 1999, the project has trained over 700 astronomer-teacher partnerships in 13 regional sites, and has directly reached almost 50,000 students with astronomy activities and information.

Key elements of the program include:

  • Treating astronomers and educators as equal partners;
  • Developing training workshops for the partners that show them effective, age-appropriate ways of conveying astronomical ideas to the students they will be working with;
  • Focusing on hands-on inquiry-based activities, where students learn to act like scientists;
  • Not "re-inventing the wheel", but often using materials and approaches that earlier educational projects and research have shown to be most effective;
  • Sponsoring follow-up activities for the partners to maintain the project momentum;
  • Involving community resources whenever possible, such as "star parties" put on by a local amateur astronomy club or visits to a local research facility;
  • Connecting participants into local networks, so they can learn from one another;
  • Making a special effort to reach out to under-served populations in science, using minority and women astronomers as role models (for example, we have partnerships working on a Native American reservation in New Mexico, with a mainly African-American community group in Chicago, and at a school for the blind and deaf in Tucson).

Note that Project ASTRO is NOT a curriculum in astronomy. There are no prescribed activities or topics to cover. Each partnership draws on its own strengths and interests to plan the astronomy being taught and what happens during each astronomer visit to fit with their own vision of what might be best for the children.

Each regional Project ASTRO site is managed by a lead institution, which appoints a Project ASTRO director and coordinator. These local leaders are trained and supported by the national project staff and by the network of ASTRO site leaders. Each site relies on a coalition of local scientific and educational organizations to help the lead institution share the work, find financial and in-kind support for the project, identify new partners, and help put on regional programs for the partners.

Each site in the original program was selected to offer a variation on the Project ASTRO theme. Lead institutions vary from the country's national observatory to a small suburban community college. In Chicago, the Adler Planetarium has made Project ASTRO part of its larger program to improve science education in the city, with help from the Center for Science Literacy of the Illinois State Board of Education. In Connecticut, the Wesleyan University Astronomy Department decided to take on the whole state, given that any point in the state is within easy driving distance of their location in Middletown. In Boston, the Center for Astrophysics, a major university-based research institute, is successfully sharing leadership duties with the Boston Museum of Science.

In establishing the regional Project ASTRO coalitions, the sites have brought together professional and amateur astronomy organizations, local observatories, planetaria, and science museums with school districts, NSF systemic change initiatives, community groups (such as 4H clubs or urban after-school programs), statewide or local NASA Spacegrant consortia, and other projects involved in improving science or technology education. At many sites, these institutions are finding other ways to work together as they get to know each other through Project ASTRO.

In the year 2000, Project ASTRO has begun a new program, with support from the National Science Foundation, to bring some of the activities and approaches we have pioneered in the classroom to families working together at home. (See the Family ASTRO page for more information.)

If you are a teacher or astronomer interested in becoming a part of Project ASTRO, or in using Project ASTRO materials, here are some ways you might get involved with us:

  • If you live near one of the Project ASTRO sites (see the list here), contact the local coordinator at your site to get an application to be an ASTRO astronomer or teacher.
  • If there is no ASTRO site near you, but you want to work with a local teacher or astronomer to start a partnership similar to what we do in Project ASTRO, you can purchase the Project ASTRO How-to-Manual (which also explains how to find a partner) and the books of resources and activities we publish, The Universe at Your Fingertips and More Universe at Your Fingertips. While using these materials on your own is not as easy as using them after you have attended a Project ASTRO workshop, many astronomers and teachers around the country have used our resources to establish successful partnerships on their own.

 

Note: This announcement is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement by SAS.