Community Events & Outreach

Star Parties

Star Parties are organized as a partnership through the University of North Dakota Space Studies Department, the Northern Skies Astronomical Society, and NDSGC. They are open to all members of the public and are great family events! Feel free to bring your own binoculars or telescope, or use the ones on-site.

Star parties are held select Friday nights throughout the summer and fall and are located either on campus at UND in Grand Forks (in the parking lot outside Clifford Hall on the southeast corner of 42nd Street and University Avenue), or at the UND Observatory in Emerado, ND (located at 1652 23rd Street Northeast).

The on-campus star parties will begin with a space-related presentation and observing will follow. Be sure to join in on the special events to check out some meteor showers as well! If there’s one thing we have plenty of in North Dakota, it’s dark skies! For additional information, please contact Caitlin Nolby.

STEM Community Events

One of the goals of the Consortium is to foster innovation in K-12 students through hands-on activities in STEM. The NDSGC hosts and participates in many community outreach events. This has included partnerships with or involvement in the following:

• Dakota Science Center
• Gateway to Science
• Grand Forks Public Library
• Fargo Public Library
• ArtWise
• Statewide K-12 Classroom Visits
• Young Scientists and Engineers Academy
• Marketplace for Kids
• Super Science Day
• International Observe the Moon Night

To keep up with local and statewide educational events for K-12 students and their families, as well as national NASA opportunities, see the NDSGC Facebook page. If you are interested in having the NDSGC visit your classroom or participate in your community event, please contact Caitlin Nolby.

NASA Space Place Educator Resource Center Partner Program

Starting in June 2013, the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium has participated in the NASA Space Place Educator Resource Center Partner Program. This means that the NDSGC is part of a unique group that helps to communicate the excitement at NASA to a most important audience of educators. This is being done by displaying a set of educational materials on the University of North Dakota campus in the Education building so that pre-service teachers will be exposed to the resources available to them for use in the classroom.

Links

• NASA Space Place - children and adults alike have fun with space and technology
• Climate Kids - play original online games and puzzles related to Earth science, weather, and climate
• SciJinks - be transported to the wild world of weather to learn about predicting global weather patterns