About Family ASTRO

Family ASTRO is a program at the non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific to help families enjoy astronomy and hands-on science together. The heart of the project is a series of new astronomy kits designed to be both educational and fun for children ages 8 and up (and for adults who work and play with them.)

Family ASTRO is part of a larger program called Project ASTRO™, that has, since 1993, linked over a thousand of volunteer amateur and professional astronomers with 4th through 9th grade teachers in their communities. As Project ASTRO astronomers "adopted" a classroom or community group for a year, they and their educator partners found tremendous interest in what they were doing among the families of the students. Here was an opportunity to continue at home what was begun in the classroom.

In 2000 we received pilot funding from the Informal Science Education Division of the National Science Foundation to develop a strategy and materials to bring astronomy in a more systematic way to families in the same communities where Project ASTRO already operates. We hope to get families away from watching Hollywood stars and outside to follow the real stars.

Our way of involving families is to invite them to evening or weekend family events, where they will have fun doing astronomy activities together. At the events, families get to try some activity stations as well as a number of facilitated activities, and then receive a kit to take home. Each event is led by one or more Project ASTRO partners, or by education staff from a local museum, planetarium, or community group. All event leaders are trained in how to organize Family ASTRO programs and do astronomy activities at regional workshops organized by the Project ASTRO sites.

So far, we have developed two Family ASTRO kits and family astronomy events:

* Night Sky Adventure helps families get to know the bright stars and constellations of each season. Families get to build their own star finder, put their family heroes in the sky, and do a celestial treasure hunt.

* Race to the Planets encourages the exploration of many intriguing worlds in our solar system. Families get to play a newly developed planets game (with a secret decoder), build their own planetary flags, and figure what they would weigh on Jupiter or Pluto.

Throughout the process of development, we have been paying careful attention to what families actually want and like (instead of pretending to know what is best for them.) With the help of the Institute for Learning Innovation, we have been conducting focus groups and trial family events with a wide range of families all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

An important aim of the project is to help parents (and other caregivers) to get more involved in their children’s science education, and to spend more time together in active experiments, observations, and discussion. Families are strongly encouraged to come to more than one event, and to continue their exploration of the event topic at home.

Now that the initial testing in the San Francisco Bay Area is finished, the kits and training workshops are slowly being introduced at a number of Project ASTRO sites around the country, where they can be further tested and adapted to local needs. In the meantime, we are developing other kits and topical family events. Next up (if you’ll pardon the expression) is a kit about the Moon.

In coming years, we will be trying out the kits and events at other regional Project ASTRO sites. At the end of the 4-year project, we will publish the kits, our manuals, and a training guide to help others to do such family workshops.

back