This Stellar Smithsonian Program Will Bring the Wonders of the Universe to the Classroom

The new initiative will help students in rural areas learn more about astronomy. Can it inspire the next generation of scientists?

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) has a motto: “The sky belongs to everyone.” That’s the inspiration behind the Smithsonian Taking Astronomy to Rural Schools (STARS) program. The initiative, which plans to launch by 2026, aims to cultivate a nationwide sense of wonder and exploration. Nowhere is the need to inspire and encourage discovery greater than in rural areas, home to about 20 percent of all students in the country, where educational opportunities like field trips are hard to access and museums or planetariums are often too far away. 

SAO’s rural public science center at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, located on Mount Hopkins in remote southern Arizona, is ideally suited to run and distribute the STARS program. STARS will provide computerized telescopes, hands-on training and K-12 astronomy lesson plans tailored to state and national standards. 

“Showing students the wonder of the night sky early is a gateway to STEM. The skills learned from STARS will show them they can succeed at math and science and engineering,” said Lisa Kewley, director of SAO and the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.    

STARS will send staff to elementary, middle and high schools to provide in-person teacher training and in-person observing sessions. Its projects will feature opportunities to examine the sun, the planets, nebulae and star clusters. Online videos and tutorials will expand the program’s reach to students even when they do not have access to a telescope. Perhaps most exciting, with the help of our dedicated partners and generous supporters, STARS will help rural learners chart paths in life they might think are beyond reach. 

Consider what may be: A 5-year-old born in a rural area looks through the lens of a telescope for the first time. The excitement of learning becomes real; their world opens up in ways they never dreamed. Maybe their love of the stars leads them to become an astronomer. Perhaps capturing images of the cosmos ignites a passion for photography. Or it might inspire art like Indigenous Canadian artist Margaret Nazon’s Milky Way, Starry Night #2 beadwork, showcased in the National Museum of Natural History’s “Lights Out” exhibition about the problem of light pollution.

The possibilities are endless, but one thing is certain: STARS will be able to show learners of all ages that the sky belongs to all people, and their options are as limitless as the universe.