Afterschool Universe is an exciting out-of-school time program for middle school students. Astronomy concepts are explored through 12 sessions (45-60 minutes each) of engaging hands-on and minds-on activities as participants take a journey through the Universe beyond our Solar System. The goal is to excite students about astronomy and science in general and have a positive effect on the attitudes of both the program leaders and the participants towards science. The program was developed by the Astrophysics Science Division at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Afterschool Universe can be implemented in a variety of settings, including science centers, youth development groups, and summer and after-school programs.

Through a grant from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, we partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development to pilot this program in five locations in New York: Buffalo, Ithaca, Elmira/Horseheads, Binghamton, and New York City in 2007 and 2008. We provided 9 hours of training to program leaders and a kit to the Cooperative Extension office in each of those counties to loan out to trained leaders. In June 2009 a workshop was held in Saratoga County for Cooperative Extension Educators, and Nancy travelled to New Hampshire in August 2009 to offer a workshop for afterschool program providers with 21st Century programs. Nancy also partnered with the NYS Operation: Military Kids program in 2009 to offer workshops in Jefferson and Nassau Counties, as well as a program for 30 kids from military families at 4-H Camp Wabasso in Redwood NY. There are kits housed in the CCE offices in the counties where we have done workshops. Ontario CCE also has a kit.

• NATIONAL AFTERSCHOOL UNIVERSE SITE

• Nancy's unofficial guide to creating an Afterschool Universe kit
• Citizen Science projects from Galaxy Zoo
  • Supernova project
  • Galaxy classification project
• Galileoscopes
• AFTERSCHOOL UNIVERSE included in U.S. Dept. of Education Consumers' Guide to Afterschool Science Resources and received excellent review! and also adopted by Great Science for Girls!
• You may find this edition of the Universe in the Classroom newsletter from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific helpful for background for Session 2: Cosmic Survey An Ancient Universe: How Astronomers Know the Vast Scale of Cosmic Time No. 56 - Fall 2001