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A. Fraknoi (Astron. Soc. Pacific and Foothill Coll.)
Project ASTRO, a program to link professional or amateur astronomers with 4th-9th grade teachers in their local communities, is now operating at 11 regional sites around the country, from New Jersey to Seattle. Each site is coordinated by a lead institution and supported by a local coalition of astronomical and educational organizations.
We will report on the number of partnerships trained, on lessons learned in the process of expanding nationally, the dissemination of project publications (including our two mammoth collections of activities and resources), the unexpected consequences of the program, and on spin-offs.
Starting in 2000, we begin a new phase called Family ASTRO, in which we will develop the capacity at several sites to work with entire families, and put together kits of basic family astronomy activities. The paper will preview this project and its expected outcomes.
ASTRO is part of the education program at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Both Family ASTRO and the expansion of Project ASTRO are supported by grants from the Informal Science Education Program at NSF (plus a small NASA transition grant.)
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: fraknoi@admin.fhda.edu