September 27, 2000
Project Astro explores space
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
"What happens if you put a cup of water in space? _ Can comets hit the Earth? _ How long can you float in space? _ How do you tell what stars are made of?"
Project Astro Polaris was sparking imaginations of both third-grade classes last week at Courtade Elementary School. As students bombarded Jerry Dobek, curator of the Rogers Observatory at Northwestern Michigan College, with questions Friday afternoon, they showed an avid interest in science, astronomy and how things work.
Just a few weeks into the school year, they had already walked off the solar system on the school's playground and dropped marbles into sand to see how craters form. They also watched a video about the first moon landing, studied Saturn's rings and learned about atmospheres.
Friday was even more exciting for the kids: they were going to build a comet. They concocted their replicas of these dirty snowballs in space at their tables using a mixture of dirt, dry ice, ammonia and water. The students watched avidly as the comets steamed and craters formed from the melting ice.
"I never knew that learning about space could be this fun," said Shelbie Buchanan, a third grader at Courtade Elementary School. "I like doing these projects, we do a little bit of science every day."
Teacher Barbara Smith found that Project Astro Polaris fit well with her science curriculum, which for the third-grade focuses on the sun, moon and earth.
"This program makes it all come alive for the kids," Smith said. "Next week we are going to the observatory to look at the sun and moon. Our science unit is only nine weeks long but I plan to tie into this all year."
Making astronomy exciting to students is just why a group of astronomers at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific developed Project Astro five years ago. The curriculum was later approved by NASA and includes activities and lessons geared to all ages.
Project Astro is a national program that allows astronomers, whether professional or amateur, to adopt a classroom and teach astronomy as a supplement to the regular science curriculum. The program has ten universities or colleges currently administering the program in their regional school districts. Northwestern Michigan College is the only two-year institution in the program, keeping company with other schools such as Harvard, Florida State University and University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
"This program fits in with the college's strategic goals plan to set aside time for students in grades k-12," said Dobek, site coordinator for Project Astro Polaris. "When we applied, they took a look at what we have here with our research facility at the observatory, the college's goals and the local astronomical society."
Dobek called the program Project Astro Polaris locally. Last year was the first year of the program, and it reached more than 4,500 students in 22 schools around the region. This year they have 23 schools already on board plus one home-schooling group.
"This program really worked out well here because we have amateur astronomers who are willing to take their passion for the stars into the classroom and share it with the students," said Dobek, who is also vice president of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society.
Gary Carlisle is one of those volunteers taking time out of his day to volunteer in a classroom. A member of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society for 17 years, he calls himself strictly a hobby astronomer whose main interest is photographing the stars. When he decided to volunteer for Project Astro Polaris this year, he had to brush up on his knowledge of astronomy first and spent this summer taking an astronomy class.
"This program is very satisfying, we do things we know the kids will be interested in," Carlisle said. "That's the beauty of astronomy, it's an amateur science. Just a plain amateur can go out and enjoy it, but with something like chemistry you have to know what you're doing."