Bringing Science into Schools through Astronomy. Project ASTRO, Tucson

Abstract

We report our experience in bringing science into US and French classrooms. We participated in the US scientific educational program Project ASTRO. It is based on a partnership between a school teacher and an astronomer. They together design and realize simple and interesting scientific activities for the children to learn and enjoy science. We present four hands-on activities we realized in a 4th-grade class (10 yr-old kids) in Tucson (USA) in 2002-2003. Among the covered topics were: the Solar System, the Sun (helioseismology) and the Galaxies. We also present a similar experience done in two classrooms in 2005, in Chatenay-Malabry (France) in partnership with an amateur astronomy association (Aphelie). This is a pleasant and rewarding activity, extremely well appreciated by the children and the school teachers. It furthermore promotes already at a young age the excitement of science, and provides concrete examples of the scientific methodology.