News
Join the AstroHunters Project
YOUR elementary students with visual impairments can become "citizen scientists" in this exciting opportunity to explore space, stars and planets!
Space the Final Frontier audio clip.
“Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s a continuing mission, To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.” (Quote from the Star Trek Series.) Space continues to fascinate all of us. Are you captivated by the stars? Do you wonder what is out there in space? Would you like to discover a planet? Do you wonder what happens if you fly into a dark hole? These are just a few questions that students around the world wonder about.
Background
Yuma Decaux, an Australian who is blind, dreams about discovering an exoplanet. In the meantime, Yuma is sharing his astronomy passion by developing an online community to make astronomy more accessible to blind people. In 2019, Yuma was awarded the Holman Prize for Blind Ambition from the San Francisco Lighthouse and began the AstroHunters Project. Yuma is currently traveling around the world, interviewing astrophysicists and astronomers. Yuma has teamed with Sonokids, developers of the popular Ballyland apps for young students with visual impairments. Sonokids recently released the Ballyland CosmoBally App, with a new Ballylander character, CosmoBally, an adorable astronaut. In this free app, CosmoBally shares fun planet facts through a simple, appealing interactive story and game. (Go to the Ballyland CosmoBally App post for more information about this app.)
CosmoBally is an astronaut, in a ball-shaped white space suit and helmet. The helmet has two red stripes,a short antenna and mic. CosmoBally’s bright green eyes are seen through the helmet’s faceplate.
Blind Citizen Scientists
This is an exciting opportunity for students to be actively engaged in science! Yuma and CosmoBally are inviting students with visual impairments to become citizen scientists by joining the AstroHunters project. Students, do you have a space-related question? Yuma and CosmoBally will ask YOUR question to astrophysicists and astronomers around the world. Your question may be used in future AstroHunters broadcasts and/or publications!
- Submit relevant questions from young students to CosmoBally in writing by email:
Use subject line: AstroHunters
Please include the first name and age of the student. By submitting the question(s) you grant permission for this question to be published or broadcast in the context of the AstroHunters project.
- Video or audio messages from students are invited, but can only be used if in your email you grant explicit permission for the video and/or audio to be published or broadcast in the context of the AstroHunters project.
- No question is too small or too strange.
- Questions from students who are blind or visually impaired are particularly invited.
- This project targets primary school aged students, but older students may submit questions as well.
- Selection of questions to be put to the experts in the AstroHunters project will be made at the discretion of the project leaders and is not open for discussion.
Yuma and CosmoBally are currently traveling to Egypt, Israel and Kurdistan. Stay tuned to learn more about these adventures and interviews with astronomers in these countries!
Resources
- More information about the AstroHunters Project here.
- More information about Yuma and the 2019 Holman Prize for Blind Ambition here.
Attached File(s)
https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/space.mp3
By Diane Brauner
