Hands-On Universe, Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley

Overview of Hands-On Universe™

or Hands-On Universe explained

Hands-On Universe(TM) is a student-centered research and K-12 curriculum development program of the Lawrence Hall of Science, at the University of California at Berkeley.

HOU materials can be found in more than 500 classrooms in regional high school networks across the world, including U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools.

For the past seven years, with support from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy, Hands-On Universe (HOU) has developed and pilot tested an educational program that enables high school students to request their own observations from professional observatories. Students download telescoe images to their classroom computers and use the powerful HOU image processing software to visualize and analyze their data. High school curriculum developed by HOU integrates many of the science and math topics and skills outlined in national standards into open- ended astronomical investigations.HOU has also developed activities and tools for middle school students and products for informal science education centers.

HOU is a collaboration of Lawrence Hall of Science, TERC Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Adler Planetarium (Chicago), and Yerkes Observatory (Williams Bay, Wisconsin), as well as a network of educators and astronomers from all over the world.