Creative and Tactile Astronomy: Exploring the Universe Using All the Senses

Creative and Tactile Astronomy is an educational project developed by English and Portuguese teachers. Isabel Borges and Lina Canas from Portugal and Alison Alexander and Ruth Wiltsher from the United Kingdom met for the first time at the 2013 Science on Stage Festival in Slubice-Oder, on the border between Germany and Poland. As a consequence of this meeting, Ruth and Alison went to Cascais in Portugal, on a "Science on Stage" travel scholarship, to meet Isabel and Lina at an Astronomy Education Alliance Meeting (a global astronomy education meeting), where they presented their projects and materials together for the first time. Four months later, they had the opportunity to present a workshop at the ASE Annual Conference 2015. Around 30 teachers from different nationalities participated in the workshop, which set out ways to enhance people's understanding of the universe, with activities that explore it tactilely, creatively, orally and sonically. Participants were invited to design a planet, feel a constellation, hear a meteor, trace a come,t and walk through the solar system. In this article, the authors and creators provide an overview of the project.