Astronomical Learning Centers from the Lake Afton Public Observatory

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Session 4 -- Public Outreach
Display presentation, Monday, 9, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

[4.04] Astronomical Learning Centers from the Lake Afton Public Observatory

W.S. Kardel (Lake Afton Public Observatory)

The Lake Afton Public Observatory was founded 14 years ago as a joint project of the city, county, local schools, and Wichita State University to provide educational programs for the public and school children. During the 1993-1994 school year over 31,000 students were served by Observatory school and school outreach programs. \\ The Observatory's Learning Centers are a vital part of its school outreach program. Students receive a presentation from an astronomer and make use of the materials and activities in the Learning Center. Each package is designed to lead students into discovering things for themselves. Learning centers are left with the students for up to two weeks. \\ Four Learning Centers are currently in use, with an additional one under development. Current Learning Centers let students explore the solar system, examine meteorites, build a simple telescope, and discover the properties of light, lenses and color. In the 1993-94 nearly 3,000 students used a Learning Center from Lake Afton Public Observatory. \\ This work is supported in part by NSF grant OSR-9255223.

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