Hooray for all the amateur astronomers who encourage their sons and
daughters, nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends and local schools,
boy and girl scout troops, or other various kid-clusters to love and to
look at the universe. Even if they don't turn out like us (maybe a good
thing), they at least have the opportunity to see the night sky. Most
any school would just be tickled to have you come to the school in the
day time or at night and perform some star-magic for their students.
To answer Mark McConnell's questions, although I am not a teacher and
some of the teachers on this list might have better or specific details,
here's my 2 cents worth. Elementary Schools do have astronomy in the
science curriculum for certain grades, and can they ever use help!
Anything your can do will enrich the students, and make you feel just
great at the same time. Even if they don't have astronomy in the
science curriculum in a particular grade, oceanography (you can tie in
astronomy to tides), geology (rocky planets) chemistry (stars) and math
can be an excuse for a star party or a comet making session in the
classroom. I personally volunteer at rural, public and private
elementary and middle schools in Marin and Sonoma county, and one high
school in SF, and so far all of them have robust science programs,
astronomy included. I can't speak for all areas, tho', and different
districts might have different curriculum.
There are formal programs like Project Astro
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/project_astro.html where a
teacher and an astronomer pair up, develop some curriculum they both
like (pretty much anything the astronomer wants to do is ok with the
teachers), and then the astronomer agrees to come to the classroom 4
times during the year. You just work it out with your teacher partner
and go for it. At one school where I volunteer I go and spend the whole
day with the third graders on their science day. My Project Astro
partner is the science teacher for the school. Next Wednesday is my
date with the third grade, and I can't wait! That fulfills my 4 visits,
since I'll be visiting more than 4 full classrooms of third graders.
Later in the year we'll put on a Family Science Night, and have a star
party. Project Astro teams are set up in the summer so they can start
the school year together, but there are often schools who want
astronomers but not enough astronomers to go around, so you might call
Project Astro and see if there are any schools in your area who could
use your help.
Many astronomy clubs have school star party programs, and some schools
have after school astronomy clubs. Jim Van Nuland coordinates the SJAA
school party program but many other clubs have programs just like it.
Here's Jim's website with the details:
http://www.svpal.org/~jvn/current.htm Jim also has some guidelines for
astronomers on his website. You might try one of these events, bring
your scope, let a kid use it to test the waters, and use that school for
your loaner idea.
A great resource put out by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is
the "Universe at your Fingertips", and "More Universe at your
Fingertips".
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/astropubs/astropubs.html
These two workbooks have hundreds of activities for the classroom or for
star parties and are organized by subject and then by grade. They are
great for around the house, too. For when you big kids want to make a
comet for your dinner party or maybe for you kids birthday party, or
make lunar craters, a sundial, a planet walk and hundreds of other
things. Teachers and ASP members get a discount.
Mark, your idea of essays and telescope giveaways or loaners is a tried
and true idea, but it does take organization, followup and training.
The Sonoma County Astronomical Society has such a program, where some of
the club members make small reflectors and give them away. The children
of Sonoma County write essays, and a club "jury" judges the essays and
awards the telescopes. Tonight is the Young Astronomers club meeting
for October, the club made up of the kids who have been awarded
telescopes. Ten year-old Jeff Star -- yes that's his real name -- will
be the speaker, and his topic is "Foamhenge", about his foam brick model
of Stonehenge. Afterwards they'll have their own star party at a really
nice and dark location in Kenwood, California. That's where I'm going
tonight.
You don't have to get formal about volunteering to do a school star
party or a classroom visit, either. I know a fireman in San Francisco
who is also an amateur astronomer, and he goes to a neighborhood school
to talk about fire and earthquake safety. Since they all know him at
this school, he thought he'd just informally do some astronomy there
with the school. He talked to the teacher and got some star parties
organized. He just does this as an individual with a neighborhood
school. Lots of people do this kind of thing, and more schools benefit.
On a related topic, if any of you in the North Bay are interested in
helping out at school star parties, we have an informal local group who
put these things on, for our kids schools, or for our Project Astro
schools or just for any school who calls and wants us to put on a school
star party. We are always in need of more and varied telescopes, and
would love to have you join us.
Jane
-- Jane Houston Jones San Rafael, CA jane@No-Spam http://www.whiteoaks.com
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