Bay Area Project ASTRO Training Workshop

Last weekend, I spent my days at the Bay Area Project ASTRO Training Workshop.  For two full days, 20+ astronomer/teacher pairs came together to learn about some effective techniques and activities that can be used in order to better communicate astronomy to students.  It seemed like most of the participants were working with middle school classrooms, but the program spans grades 3-12.

I've included the blurb from the ASP's website about Project ASTRO:

Project ASTRO™ is a national program that improves the teaching of astronomy and physical science by linking professional and amateur astronomers with local educators. Each astronomer is matched with an educator in a one-on-one partnership and commits to visiting the educator's students at least four times during the school year. Over 500 active educator-astronomer partnerships currently bring the excitement of scientific discovery through astronomy to over 20,000 students annually.

The main focus of Project ASTRO educator-astronomer partnerships is hands-on, inquiry-based activities that put students in the position of acting like scientists - as they come to understand more about the universe (and science in general).

I had known about Project ASTRO from before my internship at the ASP, so it was wonderful to be able to be involved in the training process.  While I had more of a hands-off role on Friday, I helped lead a couple of activities on Saturday.  I talked a little quickly, but luckily I can practice again at our weekend workshop for the Galileo Teachers Training Program!

Will include photos later!