After School at the Museum: Astronomy: The Anchorage Museum
About Educational Resource
This is an adaptable four-week interdisciplinary after-school program for middle school students. Discover how the Anchorage Museum focused their astronomy content to tell the story of stars through the lens of science, navigation, and as inspiration for stories and art creation.
This Program Model was developed and authored by The Anchorage Museum, with minimal editorial input and review from NASA's Universe of Learning. NASA's Universe of Learning has contributed astrophysics content and subject matter expertise to support the creation of this material.
Other organizations may adapt these materials to meet the needs of their specific audiences. While this Program Model was designed to serve the local audience of the authoring institution, it is shared here as an example for broader use. Users should adjust it as needed and use all or some of the content, as appropriate, for their own needs.
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Goals and Recommendations
Goals
This multi-week program was created to provide a nurturing and safe environment for participants to develop friendships and gain confidence in their critical thinking skills. The activities give participants:
- Access to the exciting field of astrophysics through hands-on learning,
- Provide interdisciplinary connections between modern star research and humans’ fascination with stars throughout history,
- Examine astrophotography as both an art and science, and
- Make resources available to encourage the continuation of learning astrophysics beyond the program’s duration.
Recommendations
For this program we offered transportation to and from the museum, working with local libraries as pick-up and drop-off locations. We highly recommend doing something similar, and creating a hosting space at the library to help drum up interest and promote registration.