Afterschool Explorations

Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Jefferson County currently provides 19 4-H Afterschool Programs serving approximately 1,300 Jefferson and Lewis County youth annually. The programs are 100% grant funded, and for the ‘24-’25 academic school year results showed that 65% of students regularly attending improved their ELA scores and 63% improved their Math scores. Additionally, 48% of low performing students improved their GPA and 76% improved their attendance rate. 4-H Afterschool works!

Recently the programs at Indian River Central School District delved into planetarium events to glean what they can learn from the stars.
Students were challenged to learn: what is a Constellation? Do stars ever move from their place in the cosmos? How did ancient civilizations come up with the stories that shape our night sky to this very day? Students didn’t just learn the meaning of the word “constellation” - a group of stars that, when accounted for together, form an image - they also engaged their active imaginations, discovered ancient myths, and took away incredible lessons taught by civilizations long past that can still apply to their modern lives.

StarLab, 4-H’s inflatable planetarium apparatus, made an appearance at both Philadelphia Primary and Indian River Intermediate School. Classes cycled in 30-minute blocks to join us for this lesson – Constellations; how to know them, how to name them, and how ancient civilizations gave their night sky meanings that persist with us to this day. Students started their lesson by learning about constellations’ uses in the modern sky – how there are 88 recognized constellations, and each works a little bit like an address does for our homes. These “space addresses” help us locate which quadrant of the sky the star or galaxy is in, and helps us by breaking the sky up into named zones like countries on a map. While this is helpful for modern scientists, ancient civilizations looked at the stars very differently.
Students “traveled” to ancient Greece to see how civilizations mapped the sky when we didn’t have access to modern-day technology. They learned that the ancient Greeks had discovered and named 48 unique constellations, and how the names and stories associated with those celestial bodies give us insight into what was culturally important in their daily lives. They also had a chance to play “connect the dots” with the stars, coming up with constellations of their own!

Not all constellations clearly delineate a certain image; students had the chance to observe what we call honorary constellations, which are constellations that do not cleanly reflect the image they represent, by finding the constellation Aries in the night sky. We then looked at some that are more alike in their mimicry – students managed to find Orion the hunter, the centaur Sagittarius, and Draco the dragon, while learning a bit about the myths behind each. Orion’s lesson teaches kindness and humility; as a great hunter, his hubris and penchant for showmanship landed him in hot water with the Goddess of the hunt, Athena, who sent the giant scorpion Scorpius after him to seek revenge. After almost dying from a poisonous sting, Orion is saved by his friend Ophiuchus and starts his new chance at life by apologizing to the Goddess. Athena is so pleased with Orion’s newfound respect for living beings that she immortalizes him in the stars, so that we may look up on a clear night and remember how important it is to have kindness for all living beings. Likewise, as centaurs are stewards of nature and the forests, Sagittarius reminds us to take care of our earth so that it can, in turn, take care of us. Draco’s tale is more dramatic; as a perennial constellation, meaning it is one of the few constellations in our night sky that never sets with the rotation of our earth, it is an ever-present reminder of humanity’s perseverance. Students learned to be strong like a Dragon and never give up, even when the task ahead is hard and things don’t always go their way.

Part astronomy, part astrology, part imagination and part reality, IRCSD’s communities have expanded their horizons by taking a step into the past and asking what we can learn from those that came before us. By placing themselves inside the minds of ancient communities, students managed to see the constellations in a new light and took away lessons that will stay with them for a lifetime. 4-H Afterschool provides daily academic instruction and enrichment that directly aligns with school-day learning. To learn more if your school has a 4-H afterschool program go to ccejefferson.org