Talking Space at Preschool
BMSIS Young Scientist Sara Bruhns visited a preschool classroom in Seattle, Washington to talk about the wonders of space.
Sara’s engagement was part of her Communications requirements for the BMSIS Young Scientist Program. BMSIS is continuously committed to engaging the public in the wonders of Space Exploration and the Earth System. Our Young Scientist Program continues this tradition by engaging local communities around the world.
Read Sara’s impressions below:
I performed my BMSIS Outreach activity in a preschool classroom of kids who had recently visited the University of Washington planetarium and were still very interested in space. I brought with me my coffee table “Cosmos” book that has great pictures of the planets and deep space in order to give them some ideas and inspiration for the science-art project. We sat on the carpet first and I showed them pictures, talked about what other planets were like, and answered questions they had. They were very interested in the pictures and especially what was inside each planet.
After that, I had them split between two tables of science-art activities I had planned for them. One table had sheets of white paper and they were painting, naming, and describing their own planets. The other table had a large piece of black display paper, glue, paintbrushes, and different color glitters. They painted designs of glue on the black paper then sprinkled the glitter on their designs, creating a dusty space backdrop on which to display the planets they made at the other table. They can use the display on their board for the month as a reminder of what they learned, and as a continuous inspiration for further space studies.
The kids were ecstatic about the space theme of the project. Having visited the planetarium recently, they still remembered a ton of space information and really got into the activity. Not all of the kids enjoy art projects; the three or four kids who didn’t participate in the art aspect lay on the carpet looking through my book. I continued to answer questions about space throughout the whole project. The activity as a whole was a great success.
