The Afterschool Alliance is bringing Lights On Afterschool to you with virtual events throughout the week of October 19-23. There’s something for everyone, whether you are a supporter, a community leader, a parent, a youth, or an afterschool educator seeking a special activity for your students or strategies to inform your own work. Just sign up for the events you want, and log in on event day. Check out these virtual STEM opportunities:

Celebrate Lights On Afterschool with Facebook and the Afterschool Alliance by participating in this virtual coding event. The program designer from Facebook's Engineer for the Week program will help lead students through a Lights On themed coding activity using Scratch! Take this opportunity to practice your coding instruction and learn about the Engineer for the Week program.

The STEM Next Opportunity Fund, Million Girls Moonshot and NASA are collaborating with the Afterschool Alliance to provide afterschool youth with an out-of-this-world Lights On Afterschool celebration. Students can speak live with astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli to talk about her journey to becoming an astronaut, and answer questions about the Artemis mission to land on the moon!

Highlight your STEM program for Lights On Afterschool -- October 22, 2020 -- with a live virtual event, engage with a local museum or science center to run an online activity workshop, or find more ideas here. Find out how we are celebrating this year and what you can do to shine a light on your program. Register your event to receive continued resources, tools, and updates for your event.

The race to land humans on Mars is on! The 2020 4‑H STEM Challenge will explore sending a mission to Mars with the activity, Mars Base Camp. Developed by Google and Virginia Cooperative Extension, Mars Base Camp is a collection of activities that teaches kids ages 8-14 STEM skills like mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, and agriculture.

The NASA Science Mission Directorate granted $4.6 million to Northern Arizona University’s Planetary Learning that Advances the Nexus of Engineering, Technology, and Science (PLANETS) project to fund another five years in the development of high-quality science and engineering curriculum and resources.

PLANETS is a program designed for the development and dissemination of NASA out-of-school time (OST) curricular and educator resource modules that integrate planetary science, technology and engineering. It provides free educator materials in the form of STEM units geared toward youth in grades 3-8 with a goal of serving minorities, including those with physical disabilities, Native Americans and English language learners.