Many astronomy programs rely on short-term outreach activities that provide limited opportunities for sustained conceptual development. Our School Science Forum (SSF) of the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre addresses this challenge. We have designed a structured extracurricular astronomy curriculum for Grades 5–9 serving approximately 1,000 students annually for 6 years. The curriculum establishes a progressive learning pathway. We present the curriculum framework, pedagogical design principles, and implementation experience.

Biography:

Masoom Jethwa is an educational researcher and practitioner specializing in discipline-based science education and interactive learning frameworks. Their work focuses on transforming primary astronomy pedagogy by developing multi-modal assessment tools that move away from rote recall toward active, system-level inquiry. Based in Ahmedabad, India, their current initiatives explore how real-time interface telemetry and collaborative digital platforms can map student reasoning structures and provide teachers with targeted orchestration support.