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The Universe At Your Fingertips 2.0

A DVD-ROM from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
A Collection of Hands-On, Classroom-Tested Activities and Resources for Teaching Astronomy

The Universe at Your Fingertips notebook ($42.95 list price) is available in limited quantities online at the ASP's AstroShop. A new and improved disk version, The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0 DVD-ROM ($29.95 list price), is in production and is expected to be available in the winter of 2011.

For more information and to register for a reminder message when the Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0 is available, go to:
http://www.astrosociety.org/uayf

This DVD-ROM is the most comprehensive resource and activity guide for teaching basic concepts in space and earth science ever published.

The disk includes:

• Over 130 of the best hands-on astronomy activities, developed by programs and projects around the U.S., each one classroom tested and ready to use.

• Over 65 articles and guides to astronomical information and teaching resources.

• Plus 14 short videos with instructions for doing some of the most often used activities.

The Universe at Your Fingertips is the "greatest hits" of astronomy education, designed to help teachers, curriculum specialists, museum educators, and astronomers who work with them find the most effective way of teaching about our understanding of the universe.

The activities, which range from brief (less than 15-minute) discussions to sequences taking several hours of class time, cover topics included in national and state science frameworks and standards. 

Activities are organized by topic:

• The Moon and Its Phases

• The Sun in the Sky and the Seasons

• The Planets and Moons in our Solar System

• The Scale of the Solar System

• Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors

• Star Finding and Constellations

• The Sun and the Stars

• Galaxies and the Universe

• Space Exploration and the Search for Life

• Tools of the Astronomer (Telescopes and Light)

• Examining Pseudo-science and Skeptical Thinking

• Astronomy in Different Cultures

• Across the Curriculum: Astronomy and Other Subjects

Each activity comes with full instructions, student handouts, and connections to key ideas on student learning and science teaching.

Originally a loose-leaf notebook of astronomy activities and resource guides, developed for Project ASTRO (a program at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to train and partner volunteer astronomers with 3rd through 9th grade teachers) and Astronomy from the Ground Up (a project to help science and nature centers do more astronomy), the Universe at Your Fingertips has a history as an essential resource to thousands of teachers, schools, colleges, planetariums, museums, and youth groups.  Now greatly expanded -- and much easier to carry – this major revision is expected to become an even more important national resource for those who teach (or work with teachers of) astronomy.