2005/08/19 by Caroline Barban, C. Barban, H. Dole +3
Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) #Science Education and Pedagogy #Science Education and Perceptions #astro-ph #physics.ed-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0508146
4 pages, 5 images, proceedings of the JENAM 2005 (Liege) parallel session on education. Paper also available in http://lully.as.arizona.edu/~hdole/vulgarisation/ecoles
arxiv created 2005/08/19 · openalex publication_date 2005/08/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report our experience in bringing science into US and French classrooms. We participated in the US scientific educational program Project ASTRO. It is based on a partnership between a school teacher and an astronomer. They together design and realize simple and interesting scientific activities for the children to learn and enjoy science. We present four hands-on activities we realized in a 4th-grade class (10 yr-old kids) in Tucson (USA) in 2002-2003. Among the covered topics were: the Solar System, the Sun (helioseismology) and the Galaxies. We also present a similar experience done in two classrooms in 2005, in Chatenay-Malabry (France) in partnership with an amateur astronomy association (Aphelie). This is a pleasant and rewarding activity, extremely well appreciated by the children and the school teachers. It furthermore promotes already at a young age the excitement of science, and provides concrete examples of the scientific methodology.