[12.02] Serving Multiple Audiences: Approaches to Education and Outreach at NOAO

AAS 202nd Meeting, May 2003
Session 12 Engaging the Public: from Museums to the Classroom
Oral, Monday, May 26, 2003, 10:00-11:30am, 205/206

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[12.02] Serving Multiple Audiences: Approaches to Education and Outreach at NOAO

S. M. Pompea, D. Isbell, C. E. Walker, S. K. Croft (NOAO)

NOAO programs serves a variety of audiences through community-based astronomy education (Family ASTRO), teacher-scientist partnerships (Project ASTRO), teacher professional development using videoconferencing with Tucson and Chilean teachers (which we call ASTRO-Chile), creation of a Spanish language educational materials center, a teacher retention and renewal program (Teacher Leaders in Research Based Science Education), and curriculum development (such as with the Lawrence Hall of Science GEMS program). Each program represents a well-planned initiative designed to serve a specific audience. For example, Family ASTRO-Tucson is reaching a variety of underserved groups in the Tucson area including the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation, the Hispanic community of the Sunnyside School District, and the Girl Scouts of America.

This talk describes our approach and the resources necessary to address the needs of specific audiences as part of our general astronomy education and public outreach program. Specific examples will be given for each program to describe how we have used strategic partnerships (especially with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) to leverage our internal departmental strengths with those of external partners. Program evaluation and metrics for each program will also be discussed.

The TLRBSE Project is funded by the National Science Foundation under ESI 0101982, funded through the AURA/NSF Cooperative Agreement AST-9613615. The Spanish-Language Materials Educational Center is supported by NSF through supplemental funding under the AURA/NOAO Cooperative Agreement. NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.noao.edu/education/noaoeo.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.

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