  We report our experience in bringing science into US and French classrooms.
We participated in the US scientific educational program Project ASTRO. It is
based on a partnership between a school teacher and an astronomer. They
together design and realize simple and interesting scientific activities for
the children to learn and enjoy science. We present four hands-on activities we
realized in a 4th-grade class (10 yr-old kids) in Tucson (USA) in 2002-2003.
Among the covered topics were: the Solar System, the Sun (helioseismology) and
the Galaxies. We also present a similar experience done in two classrooms in
2005, in Chatenay-Malabry (France) in partnership with an amateur astronomy
association (Aphelie). This is a pleasant and rewarding activity, extremely
well appreciated by the children and the school teachers. It furthermore
promotes already at a young age the excitement of science, and provides
concrete examples of the scientific methodology.
