Moonwalking in the Milky Way
In this multi-station STEAM program, participants explore the wonders of space. Along the way, participants gain a teeny bit of exposure to some Indigenous traditional knowledge about the stars and sky, hopefully acting as a counternarrative to the idea that Western-based scientists and astronomers are solely responsible for our understanding of space (see “inspirations, reflections and further information” section below). I hope you’ll take pieces of this and expand them into robust programs with anti-bias components (and then share them with me, ha!).
Full Program Description
Let’s celebrate outer space and the night sky with fun space-themed crafts, learning about and creating our own star stories, astronaut-in-training activities, and more.
Supplies
Print booklets and stickers for scavenger hunt answer sheets and staple stickers to the booklets.
WELCOME TABLE: RECEIVE GUIDEBOOK
STATION: SPACE WALK
- decorative lights
- tablecloths
- create a dark-ish crawl-through tunnel using large boxes, sides of tables, walls, or whatever you can manage
- tent and/or tunnel near spacewalk entrance to create an “airlock”
STATION: COLLECT MOON ROCKS
- beanbags or crumpled foil balls
- tongs or toy mechanical arms or claws
- containers or buckets to move the moon rocks into
STATION: ASTRONAUT TRAINING
- I used a dry erase prize wheel to write various gross motor activities or exercises on the spokes.
STATION: BUILD A LUNAR ROVER
- cardboard tubes, prepped with a hole cut out in the middle for the peg person, and dowels or skewers inserted for the axles
- wheels
- peg people
- skewers or toothpicks
- cardstock or paper
- markers
- paint sticks
- decorations
STATION: LUNAR BASE OR STATION
- tape
- various items from the recycling bin such as boxes, cardboard tubes, etc.
STATION: BOOST!
- large boxes
- paper
- tape
- makedo hardware if desired
STATION: STAR STORIES
- area for kids to sit and write their stories in their guidebooks
- pencils, crayons, or markers
STATION: PLANET PALOOZA
- inflatable planets or large-scale printed planet photos
STATION: SCAVENGER HUNT
- scavenger hunt answer sheets
- stickers to be placed on the answer sheets when that picture is found
Assets
looping video slide show with footage from human space exploration | download
printable activity booklet (pages 1-8); scavenger hunt (pages 9-22) | booklet pages are formatted to be printed and folded as a booklet on 17″ x 11″ paper | download | copy & edit in Canva
printable activity station instructions on 11″ x 17″ paper | download | copy & edit in Canva
scavenger hunt answer stickers | images to copy & edit in Canva | pdf page 1 | page 2 of labels formatted for Online Labels #OL2088
Inspiration and further information
There are many more things that could be done with this theme to bring Indigenous knowledge and representation to the forefront through a program – I feel embarrassed listing this program since it was so minimal, but it’s a starting point. Check out organizations like The Indigenous Education Institute and Sharing the Skies, and an introduction to Indigenous Astronomy.
I loved and learned a lot from The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein.
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