May 13th, 2008
Several of the hands-on workshops designed to help everyone prepare for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 are close to selling out and we urge educators who are interested in attending to reserve a place very soon.
The United Nations has declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), to celebrate
the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning his telescope to the heavens and changing forever humanity’s view of itself. Events and programs will be offered throughout the U.S. and the world.
To prepare for IYA, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) are sponsoring a weekend of workshops on how to present astronomy activities and ideas to audiences in schools, museums, nature centers, community groups, and everywhere people gather. No background in astronomy is required to participate.
The program will be held before the meeting of the AAS, which this year includes an ASP symposium on the International Year of Astronomy, in the St. Louis (Missouri) Convention Center. Each day, there will be 3 or 4 workshops to choose from, addressing different topics and audiences.
The full schedule and more information can be found
here.
Registration for the workshops is only $25 per day.
Among invited to attend are:
1) K-12 teachers
2) museum, planetarium, and nature center educators
3) college astronomy instructors who do outreach
beyond their own classrooms
4) amateur astronomers actively engaged in outreach
5) NASA science program educational ambassadors.
Space for the workshops is limited to preserve the hands-on cooperative environment, and registration is open on a first-come, first-served basis only until the space is gone.
