[AstroNet] Sharing children's thoughts about the Universe

["Dr. Carolina Ödman"]

Dear friends and collaborators,



You may be familiar with the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast (www.365daysofastronomy.org 
), a special project for the IYA2009. Every day of 2009, a new podcast  
about astronomy contributed by the worldwide community is published.  
The podcast is extremely popular with the public with tens of  
thousands of listeners every day. Universe Awareness has been awarded  
3 dates for this programme and three 5-10 minute podcasts to contribute.

This has made us ask the following question: "What do children think  
of the universe?"

We wish to make this an opportunity to share children's perception of  
the sky. To best take advantage of this opportunity I would like to  
ask all of you, if you have the opportunity to interview children aged  
between 4 - 10 that you work with, and ask them about the sky.

We suggest three 'themes':
- They can sing a song, a poem or tell a story or a legend about the  
sky that they have heard before or that they have created themselves.
- They can say what they like most about the universe the galaxy, the  
solar system, the planet we live on, etc.
- They can say what they think knowing the sky brings them, how it  
enriches their life. For that you can ask them what they find  
exciting, if they like learning about it, if they see the world  
differently since they know about the universe, if they wish to become  
astronomers, astronauts, scientists, etc.

To publish the interviews, please record the children and please send  
me the clips. It does not need to be of good quality. If you can  
record their voice on your mobile phone and send it to me, that is  
perfectly fine. If you prefer to film them, feel free to send me a  
video. You can send everything by email, or send a link to download  
files, or if you wish to send us a CD or a memory stick, here is the  
postal address of UNAWE:

Carolina Ödman
Universe Awareness
Leiden Observatory
PO Box 9513
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands

We invite clips from all languages. I would be grateful if you could  
send a few words  in English, Spanish or French explaining what they  
are saying but please send us the genuine recording.

Every clip you send will be published online. We will add them to the  
'Children's Creations' section on the UNAWE website and be featured in  
films and clips illustrating UNAWE activities internationally. This  
will be a source of inspiration for many we are sure. We will also  
feature them in news and reports about UNAWE.

Some of the clips will be chosen for the three UNAWE podcast episodes  
of the 365 Days of Astronomy series. If they are not in English we  
will contact you about the exact meaning of what they are saying and  
arrange a voiceover. We expect to use more than one clip in each  
podcast so feel free to send as many as you like.

This initiative will be ongoing. Our first deadline is June 1st so we  
need to have one podcast ready by then, but we will never cease to be  
interested in children's thoughts on the wonders of the universe.


I thank you in advance for your help and look forward to hearing what  
your children have to say.


Many thanks and warm regards to all,



Carolina



-- 
Dr. Carolina Ödman
Universe Awareness
carolina.odman at unawe.org
http://www.unawe.org/
IYA2009 Netherlands
http://www.jaarvandesterrenkunde.nl/
tel +31 (0)71 527 58 16
fax +31 (0)71 527 57 43
mob +31 641 275 298
skype carolune_