Astronomy is a scientific field that, through both the allure of the sky and popular culture, enjoys significant penetration into the public and especially the young. This fact along with the interdisciplinary character of the field, makes astronomy an ideal avenue for teaching basic scientific principles in a context that is both relevant to the subject and interesting to the learners. Yet, there lies a significant challenge: the dissemination of sometimes highly specialized scientific knowledge to an audience without extended or even uniform scientific background, of a wide age range and scattered over a region considerably larger than a university campus. This paper presents the educational activities at the Thrace Amateur Astronomy Club (TAAC, http://www.astrothraki.gr/) that aim to disseminate the basics of astronomy and related physics to the public and especially the young. The dedicated amateur astronomers of the club, with the significant amount of astronomical knowledge that they amass through the pursuit of their passion, represent an alternative venue for astronomy’s outreach to the general public. Apart from conventional practices, TAAC is currently in the process of employing emerging technologies of Web 2.0 (wikis, interactive virtual online environments, etc.) and contemporary learner-centered educational approaches (such as problem based learning) in order to create self-directed experiential educational episodes in the field, in the classroom and on the internet.