Projects

Pale Blue Dot

Use the perspective of astronomy to promote global citizenship and solidarity

Develop astronomy educational materials to promote climate action

Pale Blue Dot is an education project that uses astronomy to promote a sense of global citizenship in young children. The cosmic perspective of our Earth as a pale blue dot in space is a powerful tool to stimulate solidarity, appreciation of other cultures and environmental awareness. Pale Blue Dot will be a global, multi-year project, targeting disadvantaged children aged 5 to 8. The project is part of the OAD flagship project, Science diplomacy through Astronomy: Celebrating our Common Humanity.

Pale Blue Dot builds on the project Universe Awareness and will include hands-on educational materials for children that use photos of our Earth from space with the appropriate message about global citizenship. The materials will be co-created with local teachers to tailor them to local needs.

From the outset, Pale Blue Dot will be developed as a multidisciplinary research testbed for investigating the effectiveness of influencing the value systems of young children and their sense of global citizenship. Pilot projects will be carried out to develop and test educational materials and create a research framework before a global rollout.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Voyager-1 pale blue dot photo, the E-ROAD organised a Pale Blue Dot symposium at the Old Observatory in Leiden, the Netherlands, on 14 February 2020.

The project advances the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 4

SDG 4 Education

indicator 4.7.1 Extent to which global citizenship education and education for sustainable development [...] are mainstreamed at all levels.

SDG 13

SDG 13 Climate action

indicator 13.3.1 Number of countries that have integrated mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning into school curricula

SDG 16

SDG 16 Peace

indicator 16.b.1 Proportion of population reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed