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tarDate is the public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. Our English and Spanish radio programs air daily on more than 500 stations. And our popular bimonthly astronomy magazine is the perfect skywatching companion for amateur astronomers or anyone interested in celestial events and space exploration. We also offer astronomy resources to teachers, the media, and the public.

Welcome to Share the Skies, the nation's first statewide initiative that enables students and teachers to study astronomy in real time during the daytime without leaving the classroom. This innovative project was developed by the Virginia Department of Education, New Mexico Skies, Software Bisque, and Virginia Tech's Institute for Connecting Science Research to the Classroom. It enables Virginia students to access and control research-grade telescopes to explore Australia's night skies via the Internet. Students use CCD (charge-coupled device) imaging techniques to capture digital images of deep space for further study.

Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system covering the Earth and Space sciences for use by the general public. Windows to the Universe has been in development since 1995. The project started, with support from NASA for a proposal submitted by Dr. Roberta Johnson, Director of Windows to the Universe, to NASA while she was on the Research Faculty at the University of Michigan's Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences. In 2000, Dr. Johnson moved with the project to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), where she continued development on the project with her talented staff on numerous grants and contracts over the past decade. In 2010, website management and ownership moved to the National Earth Science Teachers Association, where we will be expanding opportunities to collaborate with the project - with the hope that it becomes a platform for Earth and space science education globally.

The information and activities found in StarChild can be used to engage, excite, and educate students in your classrooms. In this section, you will find lesson plans which show you some of the ways you can use StarChild in your teaching - whether via the Web, on CD, or with pencil and paper!