The “Inspiring STEM learning through astronomy” project has developed materials to inspire, encourage and educate students in rural areas of Chile, whose studies have been interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The “pandemic learning support” booklet contains four activities for children to discover and connect with astronomy in a didactic and entertaining way, covering content such as: the universe and our solar system, constellations, layers of the earth and the coronavirus.
The material (in Spanish) was prepared based on the compilation of various sources, delivering content that is striking, easy to understand and appropriate to the context in which it will be used. Also, each content contains a manual activity and open questions to share what they have learned with the family. Although the booklet was prepared so that each activity can be guided by a teacher, it is also focused on promoting self-taught STEM learning through astronomy. And it also focuses on developing scientific skills, favoring exploration and experimentation with elements of the environment, observation, measurement with non-standardized units and simple material handling. This educational material was created by Fundación Janequeo, with funding from the Office of Astronomy for Development, through its extraordinary call for COVID-19 related proposals.