One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure

Project Summary

Sesame Workshop, Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum (Chicago), Beijing Planetarium, and Liberty Science Center (Jersey City, NJ) are collaborating in a bi-national, China-U. S. cooperative project to produce and distribute a planetarium show and educational outreach materials for children ages 4-6 and their families, teachers, and caregivers. This project received major funding from the National Science Foundation and the PNC Foundation with additional support from the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, China Association for Science and Technology, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.  

The planetarium show and other project materials will appear in three linguistic versions: English and Spanish for the U. S., and Mandarin for China. Each version of the show and other project materials will feature characters from Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop’s long-running educational television series, and from Zhima Jie, the Chinese adaptation of Sesame Street. Big Bird and his Chinese counterpart, Da Niao (literal translation of “Big Bird”), will be the principal guides for young audiences in their respective countries. To facilitate the third project goal, a Zhima Jie character named Hu Hu Zhu will visit the U.S. show and the Sesame Street character, Elmo, will visit the Chinese show. 

Our affiliate at Michigan State University will develop and carry out an evaluation plan for the project in both the U.S. and China. The evaluation will be designed to assess whether this project achieves its major educational objectives. 

Main Educational Goals

The overall educational goals of the project are:

• To provide young children in China and the U.S. with an age-appropriate introduction to astronomy
• To promote positive attitudes toward science among children in each country
• To foster cross-cultural appreciation between children in both countries

A fourth goal for this project is to establish a successful and lasting bi-national collaboration among informal science educators and institutions in China and the United States. 

Project Deliverables

Below are the main project deliverables:

• 20 minute planetarium show produced in three linguistic versions (English, Spanish, and Mandarin);
• A Parent/Child Brochure filled with parent tips, activities and an interactive poster, to give families ideas for turning everyday moments into fun opportunities to explore the Sun, Moon, and stars;
• Planetarium Educator Materials to provide planetarium staff with age-appropriate activity suggestions to create exciting planetarium experiences in museums or science centers;
• Teacher Materials to help teachers extend the learning in One World One Sky; Big Birds Adventure, and offer activity suggestions that integrate astronomy into pre-existing classroom routines and curriculum;
• Project website with primary presence on Sesame Workshop home page, linked to Beijing Planetarium, Adler Planetarium, and Liberty Science Center websites (in English and Mandarin);

• Marketing and promotional materials for schools, museums, and planetariums in the U.S. and China;
• Formative and summative research of show and educational outreach materials.