The Astronomy Day in Schools global initiative was celebrated on and around 10-17 November. Over 500 events and activities have taken place in 70 countries worldwide.

This IAU100 global event has been celebrated by communicators and educators of all kinds worldwide, including both professional and amateur astronomers, to use astronomy as an educative tool to engage with the students in their communities. The educative astronomy activities in school began on 10 November, and have been continuing throughout the month of November. 

A variety of special initiatives took place as part of this global event. IAU President Ewine van Dishoeck welcomed students from the 'De Horizon' Elementary School in Katwijk, The Netherlands to Leiden University to communicate about astronomy. In India, a Guinness world record attempt was made to have more than 2000 students attend a lesson on spectroscopy and astrophysics, which was followed by a workshop in which the students made their own personal spectroscopes. In Palestine, 56 events took place in 42 schools across the country that featured a variety of astronomy activities. A multitude of events including those in Mexico, Peru, Cyprus, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates featured observations of the transit of Mercury on November 10th. Activities also took place in all provinces of Thailand, and a highlight video from the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) can be watched here. 

Images from Astronomy Day in Schools activities can be explored in a dedicated album on the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach Flickr page.

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