K-12 Outreach Opportunities

Harvard Astronomy students may develop and publish online teaching curricula to be used to relate aspects of their thesis work to K-12 students (at an age level of their choosing).

CfA Education Division

The Education Division of the CfA has produced many astronomy-related curricula for K-12 classrooms.  Harvard Astronomy students could work with Education Division staff to create similar activities related to their research.  For more information, please contact Phil Sadler.

Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a national non-profit that brings extended learning time programs to public schools. They bring in "Citizen Teachers" to teach 10 week "Apprenticeships." Interested students would be making a significant commitment to spend 1.5 hours per week in a Boston-area classroom teaching interactive lessons of their own design. This responsibility can be split between 2 or 3 like minded students. 

To meet the Department's outreach requirement, students should work in conjunction with Citizen Schools staff to archive their curricula online for other CTs around the country to use.  Interested students may contact Nathan Sanders for more information.

STSCI Teaching Materials

The Space Telescope Science Institute has made available a series of classroom activity lesson plans for teachers.  Harvard Astronomy students could create similar activities related to their research.

Online Chemistry Textbook

MIT grad student Tyler DeWitt has made dozens of Khan-style videos explaining the basics of chemistry, an "online video chemistry textbook". Harvard Astronomy students could make a similar video series focusing on the concepts underlying their thesis work.