Astronomy from the Ground Up (AFGU) is a National Science Foundation funded program* developed to provide informal science educators at science centers, nature centers, museums, and other informal education venues with new and innovative ways to communicate astronomy content to their visitors.

AFGU is a growing community of more than 400 educators from museums, science centers, nature centers, and parks around the country, who are actively enhancing and expanding their capacity to address astronomy topics for their visitors. Here are some sample activities used by AFGU participants to get their audiences excited about astronomy:

• The Pocket Solar System
• Red Hot, Blue Hot: Mapping the Invisible Universe
• Exploring Lunar Phases with a Daytime Moon

Astronomy from the Ground Up was created by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) in collaboration with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). Click here to learn more about the Astronomy from the Ground Up team. We are also working with the Institute for Learning Innovation to research the professional development methods used for AFGU, comparing face-to-face and online workshops. Click here to learn more about the research component of AFGU.

To see photos of our past AFGU workshops, please visit our Flickr photo pool!

In 2009, the AFGU team will begin to offer astronomy training and materials to park rangers and other outdoor educators and interpreters, thanks to a generous grant from NASA. This new program, Sky Rangers, will build on the success of AFGU and will involve collaboration with the National Park Service, the National Association for Interpretation, and NASA's Night Sky Network.

NOTE: At this time, we are not accepting applications for AFGU or Sky Rangers workshops. Please sign up here for notification regarding future related opportunities.

The AFGU team can be contacted at:

Astronomy from the Ground Up
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
390 Ashton Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112

Email: afgu {at} astrosociety.org
Phone: (415) 337-1100 x102

*Astronomy from the Ground Up is based upon work supported by the Informal Education Division of the National Science Foundation under Grant no. ESI-0451933. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

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