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C. L. Imhoff (CSC/STScI), H. M. Hart (CSC/JHU), C. A. Grady (NOAO/GSFC), H. L. Chase, I. Nachlas-Gabin (Howard County Library)
YSE is an astronomy and space outreach program for children ages 5 through 8 years of age. A team of three astronomers and several librarians from the Howard County Library (Maryland) have worked together to carry out a series of programs involving hands-on activities. There is little age-appropriate material available for this age group, so we were challenged to derive our own activities. In some cases, published activities were substantially modified to accomodate younger children. In other cases, new activities were created from scratch. Topics included the Moon, the Sun, Mars, meteors and comets, and light and color. Examples of our programs and activities will be presented. Our website is at http://www.rwaurigae.org/yse.html.
We have found that the local library system is an ideal venue for outreach programs. The library provides a well-known community resource, an in-place infrastructure for programs with a variety of media, and an institutional focus on outreach to a diverse community. Our Childrens' Librarians are very knowledgeable and supportive, providing an essential component of the program.
This project is supported by NASA through an IDEAS grant to the Howard County Library.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.rwaurigae.org/yse.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mailto: imhoff@stsci.edu