You may be familiar with the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, 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 us the clips. It does not need to be of good quality. If you can record their voice on your mobile phone and send it as is, it is perfectly fine. If you prefer to film them, feel free to send 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:

We invite clips from all languages. Although we 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 Voices' 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 open-ended and 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.

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

Feel free to use the banners below to advertise your participation in this initiative!

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