How can one begin to appreciate the remarkable story of how this world came to be? How do you behold the beauty of its journey over eons? Just as the movie Journey of the Universe succeeded in conveying magnificence to a general adult audience, Dana Lynne Andersen also succeeded in conveying magnificence to children when she illustrated the three-part Universe Trilogy picture book series authored by Jennifer Morgan.

“The universe’s story has two important parts and both need to be addressed,” she said in a recent interview. “There is the rational, scientific part of the story, and also the mythical, emotional part of us that came into being when the universe came into being. The story is not simply dry facts. It’s the universe itself – and that’s us! – telling its own story.”

To reveal both aspects of the story Dana painted with a unique blend of realism and abstraction. “It’s important to show that underneath the chaos, there is also a feeling of unity,” she said. “The sense of a world with its emotional tones, its feeling energy, is brought in with juicy colors and shapes that make the changing forms real and meaningful.”

One can sense in the Universe Trilogy—Born with a Bang, From Lava to Life, and Mammals Who Morph—a reflection of cosmic energy struggling to be born. As told in both the children’s books and the movie, the evolving universe went through periods of dramatic crises and apparent catastrophes, only to emerge with brilliant solutions that further laid the foundations for life.

Dana is the founder of Awakening Arts Network, which she describes as “a resource for artists who are using art to uplift humanity. We are a group of more than a thousand artists from around the world who have many different styles and approaches, but a commonality of pursuing art for a higher purpose.”

“Modern art of the 20th Century reflected a need to break free of the and the dogmas and demands of tradition. ‘Art for art’s sake’ may have been a necessary phase in the beginning of modern art because there was a need to break free of the past and the dogmas and demands of tradition. Art for its ‘shock value’ was a healthy thing to do. It was, in a sense, a wild adolescent period.”

But, she says, “it is the artist’s role in society to lift the mind and heart above the fray in order to access creative solutions. Art must show solutions and not just reflections of the problems. Art can and should do more than represent what is already visible – it has the power to bring forth what is otherwise invisible, from the spiritual and transcendent realms of timeless truth.”

The newly-understood story of the universe as portrayed in both her books and the movie, Dana says, “brings forth a new paradigm entailing an experience that resonates on a deep level of our being—a sense of awe that facts alone can’t provide.” The science is essential, she agrees, but the role of her art is to “deliberately shift the focus of our attention to the inherent magnificence of the cosmos, and give it the awe and respect that is native to it. And as we’re feeling that awe, we begin to remember the vastness of who we really are.”

She was lauded as an “Eco Star” by the Cousteau Society, and inducted into the Kid Heroes Hall of Fame by E: The Environmental Magazine. Her love of nature was infectious. Her “can do” attitude toward life helped make her popular and inspired other children to use their own unique talents to support nature.

Two of her books are model nature journals: Salamander Rain: A Lake and Pond Journal, and Saguaro Moon: A Desert Journal. Her most recent book, The Forever Forest, is a “hike” through the Children’s Eternal Rainforest preserve in Costa Rica—the preserve that donations from children all over the world helped make happen.

In all, Kristen has now written and illustrated 15 books, including Papa’s Opera, the true story of what happened when Mozart took his son Karl to see the “The Magic Flute” which Mozart had just composed.

We caught up with Kristen recently on the Principia College, Illinois, campus where she is currently teaching full time. “I’m not done with the book illustration world, but I’ve decided my art needs more school,” she said. Beginning in January, 2012, she will be working towards an MFA degree through the Vermont College of Fine Art in Montpelier, Vermont.

Unlike many art schools, the Vermont program has a significant writing component, something Kristen is happy about. And unlike many other art schools with an exclusively residency-based program, Vermont arranges with a qualified, paid mentor to tutor students where they live, meaning that Kristen can continue to live primarily in her home town of St. Louis, Missouri. An additional advantage, she said, is that the program “encourages lots of connections in your own community.”

– by Brian “Fox” Ellis

OK, let’s start with the worst case scenario: Several years ago I was presenting a day long pre-conference workshop for the Michigan Science Teachers Association. Always trying to encourage teachers to take their students outside, we escaped from the stuffy conference center to go for a hike, but the only patch of nature we could find in downtown Detroit was a rectangular hole in the pavement about 2’ x 3’ with the dead stump of a former tree and gravel…. Yet in this mini-oasis we found a rich community of pill bugs, ants, a centipede, two different kinds of moss, some lichens, a fungus and the gravel was filled with the fossils of an ancient sea bed, truly a teachable moment. We studied the world from the point of view of an ant. We drew pictures of the different mosses, comparing and contrasting their forms. And we wrote stories about a day in the life of a pill bug. It still ranks as one of the best nature hikes ever and a great model for these inner-city teachers to look for nature wherever you find it!

Whatever the season, whatever the weather, the wild world is waiting to offer your students a chance for real learning; even if you are just circling the building, take your class outside and let them immerse themselves in a sense of wonder.

A fall leaf collecting trip, a wintery exploration of animal tracks, spring flowers and summer insect safaris, there is always something going on out of doors. Follow A Drop Around the World on a rainy day and see where the rivulets on the playground lead you. Or follow the energy cycles on a sunny day and Pass the Energy Please.

If you like structure, the Flow Hike outlined in Joseph Cornell’s classic work, Sharing Nature with Children gives you a great pattern to build a simple plan for a hike. I like to start the walk with a few moments of walking in silence for students to keep count of how many sounds they hear. Tune their eyes and ears. Stop to discuss the sounds. Then ask them to find a partner and keep walking while looking for as many colors of the rainbow they can find with that partner’s help. Pass out a one meter piece of string and magnifying glasses to each student to help them create a one meter hike for their partner. They can imagine they are an ant or imagine the world from a Salamander’s point of view.

Students could create a nature journal like Klint in Salamander Rain. Around One Log or Under One Rock are great models for students to explore in detail a smaller habitat in your school yard. The Blues Go Birding or City Beats: A Hip-Hoppy Pigeon Poem can be an introduction to a bird watching hike. Reading The Tree in the Ancient Forest while sitting under the oldest tree on the playground could be inspiration for the class to co-create their own poem about the animals dependent on your Favorite Tree.

And for the more adventurous, my book, The Web at Dragonfly Pond could be an introduction to a hike that explores the food web on your school grounds. Give each group of four students a spool of string maybe 30 meters long and ask them to make connections between the plants and signs of animal life, a spider’s web, a nibbled leaf, to create a web of life in a meadow or forest nearby. You probably won’t see a cougar, but you might find the husk of an acorn eaten by a squirrel, or a tree with woodpecker holes. Then each group can lead a hike for another group to retrace their interdependent webs.

My grandmother said if it’s worth saying once, it is worth repeating: Whatever the season, whatever the weather, the wild world is waiting to offer your students a chance for real learning.

Brian “Fox” Ellis is the author of 15 books, a sought after school presenter and a frequent keynote speaker at teacher conferences. His motto is “Education and Inspiration through the ancient art of storytelling!” www.foxtalesint.com.

One of my favorite nature quotations comes from the Japanese conservationist Tanaka Shozu who said, “The question of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart.”

I wanted to touch the hearts of my middle school students with the beauty of nature as well as inspire them to take care of the local environment. I found the perfect spot for a nature experience less than an hour away from our school campus in the Sierra Nevada.

First stop was a shady woodland nature trail. The path twisted and turned as it followed Rock Creek through the pines, oaks, and big leaf maples. I had the students spread out along the trail, leaving about 10-12 feet between one another. They sat in silence for 10 minutes (a long time for some 13-year-olds!) and then wrote a one sentence description of their surroundings. Some wrote about what they saw—green leaves, sparkling sunlight, giant trees reaching into the sky. Others wrote about what they heard—singing birds, and the bubbling creek rushing over rocks, while others focused on how they felt—peaceful, quiet, and calm.

I collected the papers, and we took a short hike to totally different part of the forest—an area that had been recently clearcut of all trees. Tree stumps dotted a barren hillside. Without a canopy of leaves providing shade, the sun blazed down on us. Once again I had the kids spread out, sit by themselves, and write one sentence about the area. Words like desolate, destroyed, dead, sad, emptiness filled their papers.

Gathering in a circle, I collected these papers and read them aloud as if each sentence was a line in a poem. Then I read aloud the “poem” they had written from the nature trail. What a stark contrast in words and feelings!

I didn’t need to give a lecture on the importance of taking care of the forest. The kids “got it” through their direct experience in nature. Their hearts were touched. Their minds were opened. Back in the classroom we explored the hows and whys of forest management, but nothing they learned from our studies came close to having the impact of their personal experience. Experience truly is the BEST teacher.

I was fortunate in that I was able to arrange an all-day field trip. But you can create a high-impact nature experience without traveling far—just step outside the classroom door and try out one of these ideas:

Suggestions from Earth Heroes: Champions of the Wilderness:

• Play “Ten Treasures” by going on a walk around the school grounds and finding ten different plants, insects, birds, or other critters. Use field guides to identify the treasures. This is a great team activity.
• Have each student choose a nearby tree and visit it weekly. Encourage the student to get to know “their” tree in a variety of ways: making bark rubbings, creating a collage of leaves, measuring their tree’s circumference, calculating it’s height, or writing a detailed description of their tree and asking someone find it.
• Place pieces of scrap wood on bare dirt or under bushes around the school. Wait two days and have students work in small groups to lift the boards and count the creatures they find hiding there. Use field guides to identify them.

Play the outdoor game “I am aware of…” from a Teacher’s Guide for How We Know What We Know about Our Changing Climate:

• Divide the class into small groups of 5-8 students. Go outside and have groups form into a circle.
• Going around the circle, each person completes the sentence “I am aware of…” by saying a word or phrase about something they see, hear, smell, or feel. For example, “I am aware of the sunlight sparkling on the pine needles of the tree.” “I am aware of the wind blowing across the grass.” “I am aware of how hot the sun is on my shoulders.” Students continue for several times around the circle. As each student takes a turn, the others pause for a moment to become more aware of what was just mentioned.
• Encourage students to stretch their powers of observation by using all of your senses. To keep everyone’s attention focused, students do not talk unless it’s their turn.
• After playing the game for several minutes, ask each student to choose one of the objects they observed and work independently to write 10 or more descriptive words or phrases about it. If there’s time, they can also sketch their object. When back in the classroom, have students share their descriptions and sketches.

Birds are everywhere. Just look up! Practice these birding tips from The BLUES Go Birding Across America:

• Use binoculars to help you see birds more clearly.
• Observe a bird’s size, shape, and color.
• A field guide’s pictures and descriptions can help you lean about the birds you see.
• The best time to see birds is when they are most active. That’s usually when they are eating.
• Listen to birds’ calls and songs.
• Male birds may be easier to identify than females because they are often brightly colored.
• Don’t disturb birds by getting too close, especially if they have babies.
• Attract birds to the area by putting up a bird feeder and birdbath.

Also I recommend that you look at Sharing Nature with Children and Sharing Nature with Children II by Joseph Cornell. Both of these pioneering books have well-proven activities designed to awaken the enthusiasm of children for nature, focus their attention on some aspect and to experience it directly, as well as to share their inspiration with others.

As an educator for more than 20 years, Carol L. Malnor taught elementary, junior high and high school. She helped found two alternative high schools and created specialty educational programs. She is now a writer. Her books include The BLUES Go Birding Series and Earth Heroes: Champions of the Wilderness and Earth Heroes: Champions of Wild Animals as well as numerous Teacher’s Guides to books published by Dawn Publications. She is also co-author of Molly’s Organic Farm available March, 2012.

“The idea that urban kids aren’t interested in nature is patently untrue,” says author Mary Quattlebaum of Washington, D.C.

Mary is speaking to the larger world’s tendency to see city kids as uninterested in the natural world just by virtue of where they live. She is quite passionate about helping these kids to connect with the nature around them. Urban youngsters have seen dragonflies, frogs, ants, squirrels, butterflies, and dandelions and are just as curious about them as other children. Mary hopes to acquaint all kids with the idea that creatures live in neighborhoods (or ecosystems) much like their own, full of interesting characters.

Even if they have never met a cow, children almost universally know and love the old song, “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”. E-I-E-I-O! So Mary wrote a book that adapts the old song about a farm to the “neighborhood” of a pond. In Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond, children discover animals like fish, birds, raccoons, and dragonflies, as well as the more recognizable frogs and ducks. “Kids are familiar with their own neighborhoods and communities, and the book’s aim is to show how wild animals, too, live in a community–like Jo’s pond–and benefit one another. The pond is the animals’ ‘neighborhood.’”

Mary knows ponds. After all, she grew up with one. “My dad was kind of like Old MacDonald,” she says. “We lived in the country and had lots of land and animals–but my dad was also a good steward of that land. Over time, he’s planted many trees and wildflowers and created wildlife habitats–and even received a state environmental award recently for his efforts.”

Mary also knows how much kids like stories. Since Mary is the oldest of seven children, her mother often would ask her, “Would you rather do the dishes or read to your brothers and sisters?” So Mary did a lot of reading aloud! Her love of poetry was first fostered by her dad’s bedtime ritual; he would recite nursery rhymes in a very animated call-and-response way. Not surprisingly, Mary eventually went on to get a Master’s degree in English literature with a focus on teaching writing.

With her special feeling for urban children, Mary wrote Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns, Jackson Jones and the Curse of the Outlaw Rose, and Jackson Jones and Mission Greentop, published by Random House. The humorous chapter-book series is about an engaging kid and his (mis)adventures in a city community garden. Her picture book Winter Friends (Random House) is a series of poems about the birds, animals, and snowy fun experienced by a little girl in her city neighborhood.

Mary also has a special feeling for sick children. While teaching evening writing classes through Georgetown University’s continuing education program, she worked days at a children’s hospital as a medical writer, where she met her husband, Christopher. Together they developed and ran a volunteer program for two years called Magic Words. As part of this program, the couple regularly visited hospitalized children and encouraged them to write or dictate poems and stories. For these kids, writing became an antidote to boredom, an outlet for pent-up emotions, and a way to explore their creativity through words. Mary offers many such creative activities and writing games through the downloadable activities at www.dawnpub.com and on her website www.maryquattlebaum.com.

Every one of those 25 books is a collage. That’s Cathryn’s specialty, her signature style. Look closely and you will see not only cut paper but also leaves, birch bark, and even bits of wasp nest. But when she considered the subject matter of this book — wild turkeys — “the turkeys themselves almost look like they are made up of fine lines,” she says. “The details of their bodies and feathers have a drawing quality needing lines. Other artists might draw those lines with pen and ink, but that’s not a medium I use.”

So Cathryn decided to combine her collage with a woodcut style. It’s something she knew how to do quite well, as she was a printmaking major in college at the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts, mostly doing stone lithography – the technique made famous by Currier & Ives. Back in the ‘70s when Cathryn was in college she really wanted to study illustration, “but illustration was not in vogue at all back then, and there was no such thing as an illustration major.” Printmaking was the next best thing.

“I’ve always wanted to do a book with a printmaking technique, and this was my opportunity,” she says. She was excited about the prospect of making something visually interesting and different. “But what I didn’t realize was that I was actually making two books, one in collage and one in blockprint. It was quite a learning curve. The first half of the book took me eight months! But finally I got it, and the second half took me eight weeks. It really required some brain stretching, because the blockprinting technique is all in reverse. It’s a relief printing technique, so only what is not cut away gets the ink.”

Fortunately, modern materials make it easier to carve out what was not to be seen in the final illustration. A synthetic artist’s material is much easier to cut than wood!

In the long run it was worth the extra effort. “I played with reality here,” she says. The illustrations are strong, as block printing tends to be, and also vibrant, as collage tends to be. Cathryn sometimes uses paint or pastels on the paper she uses, which enhances the collage further.

Cathryn often visits schools, nature centers, and libraries. “The whole idea behind what I do is to spark a sense of wonder and curiosity in kids about nature. After all, they will be the careful stewards of the earth, and we have an obligation to make sure that it happens.”

Profound moments with nature foster a true and vital understanding of our place in the world. I remember an experience I had as a five-year-old boy that awakened in me a life-long fascination for marshes, birds, and for a life lived wild and free:

I was playing outside on a cold foggy morning when I suddenly heard a startling chorus of “whouks” coming toward me through the air. I peered intently at the thick fog, hoping for at least a glimpse of the geese. Seconds passed; the tempo of their cries increased. They were going to fly directly overhead! I could hear their wings slapping just yards above me. All of a sudden, bursting through a gap in the fog, came a large flock of pearl-white snow geese. It seemed as if the sky had given birth to them. For five or six wonderful seconds their sleek and graceful forms were visible, then they merged once again into the fog. Seeing the snow geese thrilled me deeply, and ever since then I have wanted to immerse myself in nature.

Being Fully Present

When outdoors, many people are so engrossed in their own private concerns that they spend little time noticing their surroundings. I once demonstrated this to a group of twenty-five teachers in Canberra, Australia. I asked them to look at a beautiful tree as long as they were able to, and to raise their hands when their attention wandered from the tree and drifted to other thoughts. In only six seconds, every hand was raised. They were amazed to discover how restless their minds were.

Exposure to nature isn’t always enough. A friend of mine discovered this when he took his eight-year-old son hiking in the Canadian Rockies. They hiked for several hours until they came to a spectacular overlook where they could see two glaciated valleys and several alpine lakes.

He said, “That view alone made our long trip from Iowa worthwhile.” He suggested to his son that they sit and enjoy the mountain scenery. But the boy, who’d been running exuberantly back and forth along the trail, sat for five seconds, then scrambled to his feet and started running up the trail again. My friend said he felt like screaming, “Stop! Look at this incredible view!”

How can we help others experience nature deeply when their minds and bodies are so restless? The secret I’ve discovered is to focus their attention with captivating nature activities that engage their senses.

For example, in the Camera Game, which is played with two people, the “photographer” taps the shoulder of the “camera” twice, and the camera-person opens his eyes on the scene before him. Because the camera-person looks for only three seconds, his mind doesn’t have time to daydream, so the impact of his “picture” is quite powerful. Players of the Camera Game have told me that they’ve retained a vivid memory of their pictures for five, even eight years afterwards. This activity helps people of all ages experience what it is like to truly see.

Other examples of simple, absorbing activities are mapping natural sounds; writing an acrostic poem about something captivating; drawing one’s “best nature view”; and interviewing nature, where you look for a special rock, plant, or animal that has an interesting story to tell. Then you ask it questions like, “What events have you seen in your life? What is it like to live here? Is there something you would like to tell me?”

Superlative Moments

Abraham Maslow described peak experiences as especially joyous with “feelings of intense happiness and well-being” and which often involve “an awareness of transcendental unity.” Mountaineers commonly report having these kinds of experiences. John Muir, in the following passage, explains why:

“In climbing where the danger is great, all attention has to be given the ground step by step, leaving nothing for beauty by the way. But this care, so keenly and narrowly concentrated, is not without advantages. One is thoroughly aroused. Compared with the alertness of the senses… on such occasions, one may be said to sleep all the rest of the year.”
- John of the Mountains

The intense focus required by wilderness pursuits such as climbing heightens one’s awareness, which is why so many people avidly enjoy them.

Leaders can encourage peak experiences on less wild walks by using experiential activities that focus people’s complete attention on nature. Concentration is concentration: people benefit from increased perception wherever there are. One educator, who hikes the Appalachian or Pacific Crest Trail every summer, practiced Sharing Nature’s reflective I Am the Mountain exercise for just four minutes. Afterwards, he said enthusiastically, “I was able to experience a state of heightened awareness that usually takes me a month in the wilderness to feel.”

Meeting Nature Face to Face

Science can only describe a flowering cherry tree; it cannot help us experience the cherry tree in its totality. To develop love and concern for the earth, we need deep, absorbing nature experiences; otherwise, our relationship with nature will remain distant and abstract and never touch us deeply.

Rita Mendonca, Sharing Nature Brazil’s national coordinator, recently gave a training program in the Amazon for professional ecotourism guides, some of whom had worked in the area for 40 years. Their attitude at first was that she had little to teach them. But after participating in several experiential Sharing Nature activities, a woman approached Rita and said with deep emotion, “You are helping me find the forest inside of me! We don’t know the forest in this way!”

Absorbing experiences bring us face-to-face with nature. The observer and the observed become united—and only then is true knowing and love awakened in the observer’s heart. John Muir said that the content of the human soul contains the whole world. The deeper purpose of experiential learning is to broaden our experience of life and include other realities as our own. When one is immersed in nature, Muir said, the “body vanishes and the freed soul goes abroad.” Only by expanding our sense of identity beyond our physical body and egoic self can we commune with distant horizons, brightly colored songbirds, and countless other delights.

When people are quiet and receptive, fully immersed in nature, insights on the real purpose of life reveal themselves. is a teacher at the Punahou School on Oahu Island, Hawaii, where every year he leads his thirteen-year-old students on an inspirational nature walk along a remote and wild coastline. Below are some of his students’ thoughts about life and nature after playing reflective, experiential Sharing Nature activities like Expanding Circles, Trail of Beauty, and the John Muir Game:

• It made me feel like I was actually a part of the sand and ocean.
• I was a calm ocean wave gently rolling towards the shore. I was the reef, feeling the cool water roll over me.
• I felt euphoria. I felt like I was one with everything around me.
• It felt powerful, yet peaceful. Every part of me is moving and flowing in harmony.
• Watching the turtle swim carefree reminded me that I have nothing to worry about.
• You really live when you take time to notice your surroundings.
• If you find beauty within the world you can find it within yourself.

Jessica, one of David’s students, wanted to express her appreciation for the ocean, so she gratefully wrote “thank you” in the sand—and let the ocean waves embrace her sentiment and take it into itself.

Fostering in others beautiful human qualities of humility, respect, love, and joyful harmony with one’s environment outside and inside of oneself—as expressed by the Hawaiian students—is what nature education is really about.

Becoming Good Stewards

A teacher in the Southwest once asked the children in his class to draw a picture of themselves. He recalled, “The American children completely covered the paper with a drawing of their body, but my Navajo students drew themselves differently. They made their bodies much smaller and included the nearby mountains, canyon walls, and dry desert washes. To the Navajo, the environment is as much a part of who they are as are their own arms and legs.” The understanding that we are a part of something larger than ourselves is Nature’s greatest gift. With it, our sense of identity expands and, by extension, so does our compassion for all things.

In order to create a society that truly reveres the natural world, we must offer its citizens life-changing experiences in nature. Saint Teresa of Avila said, “The soul in its ecstatic state grasps in an instant more truth than can be arrived at by months, or even years, of painstaking thought and study.” One moment of deeply entering into Nature can inspire in us new attitudes and priorities in life that would take years to develop.

When people feel immersed and absorbed in the natural world, they are learning the highest that nature has to offer—because Nature Herself is their Teacher.

Joseph Cornell is the author of the highly acclaimed Sharing Nature Book Series and is the Founder and President of Sharing Nature Worldwide. You are welcome to reprint this article with prior permission from Sharing Nature Worldwide. You can find out more about Sharing Nature activities and resources at www.sharingnature.com or (530) 478-7650. Contact Joseph Cornell at: info@sharingnature.com.

One of the best things about being a writer is how I can put parts of my own life into my books–even one like If You Give a T-Rex a Bone, which takes place 65 million years before I was born!

So maybe you’re wondering, “Wow! Have you seen dangerous animals in the wild, like in the book?”

Yes!

Once I was walking along a Rocky Mountain trail when I heard a sound. Kind of a ticka-ticka-ticka from some wild grass, not 10 inches from my left foot. Something about it was familiar. In fact I’d only heard it previously on TV. Still, I suddenly remembered what it might be–and jumped back. When I looked closer, I saw I was right. It was a rattlesnake, coiled up, its head lifted. And if a rattlesnake is upset enough to shake its tail at you–then you got too close!

I’ve also seen huge animals in the wild. For example, I was in a LandRover in Kenya once, with a herd of immense elephants about 40 feet away. It was amazing. And I’ve watched humpback whales breaching way out beyond San Francisco Bay.

But best of all–and scariest–was being charged by a rhino. Again, I was in Kenya. The driver of our LandRover thought it would be fun to get close to the rhino. But it was a mother rhino, with her baby–and she came straight for us. We pulled away. But then the driver turned around and approached her again!

The second time was even more intense. The LandRover stalled on some high ground, with mother and baby still charging right toward us from behind!

But they were only bluffing, because they soon peeled off and went elsewhere.

As you can see, my book has part of my life in it–only on a more awesome and dinosaurish scale!

Once upon a time there was no earth. Earth-to-be was part of a cloud of stardust floating through space. The cloud shrank and flattened into a disk shape that began to spin and grow tighter and tighter until WHOOSH! . . . the center flared into the sun, and the planets, including earth, formed in the outer part of the disk.

How precious earth becomes for children . . . and all of us . . . when we hear the story of how our earth was born out of stardust. The story evokes such a powerful sense of connection, not only with our own special planet, but with the universe as a whole and the great cosmic adventure that we’re all part of. Inside the greater cosmic story, we can’t take earth for granted. It wasn’t always here. Its existence and its capacity to support life rests upon the epic of evolution that brought it into being and the balance of complex interrelationships. Through the story of the universe, we lift off of earth — just as astronauts have done — and see our home as more unique and wondrous than ever.

Maria Montessori recognized early on the importance of teaching elementary age children the story of the universe as a context for all subjects. “If the right idea of the universe be given to the child in the right way,” she wrote, “it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him an admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying. The child’s mind will no longer wander but will become fixed and can do work.”

Not long before her death in 1952 she developed the Cosmic Education Curriculum which became the philosophical foundation of the elementary curriculum. It is based on the idea that studying the great cosmic adventure, the greatest story of all, gives context, meaning, and a sense of connection and excitement to everything. “It is not enough,” she said, “for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand the Universe.”

Five Great Lessons provide the “scaffolding” for Cosmic Education:

1. The Story of the Universe
2. The Story of Life
3. The Story of Humans
4. The Story of Communicating in Signs
5. The Story of Math

The first Great Lesson, The Story of the Universe, tells the story of the big bang through formation of the solar system. The Story of Life tells the story of earth nurturing life into being that becomes more and more complex. The Story of Humans starts with the evolution of the very first humans and tells the story of human evolution up to today. The Story of Communicating in Signs explores even more deeply human cultures and language while the Story of Math is specifically about math. All subjects are placed on this Great Lesson Scaffolding, thus showing the interrelationships between all subjects.

Within cosmic education, ecology and love of the earth are not taught as separate subjects but are interwoven into everything.

To help tell this story, I wrote the Universe Story Trilogy, illustrated by Dana Lynne Andersen, and published by Dawn Publications. Born With a Bang covers the first Great Lesson, the big bang through formation of the solar system. From Lava to Life covers the second Great Lesson; and the third book, Mammals Who Morph, covers third Great Lesson and also touches on the fourth and fifth Great Lessons as well.

Now there is another helpful tool for teachers, the Cosmic Story Cards and Timeline based on Born With a Bang, recently published by Wasecabiomes.org. The package consists of: 1) a large teacher card set with a picture image on one side and a simple story line on the back, 2) a smaller card set for students to sequence, 3) an even smaller card set for sequencing on the timeline, and 4) a timeline. The package which retails for $95. The card sets are a great complement to the book. After telling the story to the class, students can internalize the story and sequence the cards on their own. They can read the book before or after sequencing the cards. The book is a more complex version of the story and makes a great way for students to deepen their immersion in the story. For more information about the Cosmic Story Cards and Timeline, go to www.wasecabiomes.org and select “The Big Picture.” You can also call Waseca at 866-546-8833 for a catalog.

For information about teacher trainings and school visits, go to my website at www.universestories.org. And if you have any feedback regarding the books and/or the Cosmic Story Cards please write to me through my website.