Table 2 First Workshop design: Te whakapapa o Papatūānuku (From the Big Bang to the Origin of Planet Earth)

a.

1. Te whakapapa o Papatūānuku (The Genealogy of The Earth): Introductory workshop

Theatre-dance and somatic dance: māori and/or the scientific story performing through body sensitization. By guided attention, an exploration of the physical sensations was directed while building up the narrative of the origin of the Universe and the Earth. The movement was connected with feelings, findings, needs, desires (e.g., the need of light and order in the cosmos, the desire of expansion and space). Rarely the children needed to imitate the teacher and most of the time, a free-style movement was established in order to focus attention on the individual processes. According to the physical laws experienced with the body (i.e., gravity, momentum, inertia) and the image or narrative given by the instructor, the scientific explanation was provided either during the dance or in short pauses used for discussion circles. At the end of the movement-session a talk-circle served to construct concepts through the interactive discussion between teachers and students.

Te Kore, transition from Te Pō to Te Ao Mārama

Expansion of the Universe (Big Bang)

Laying down with closed-eyes, starting to explore the ground and describe textures, temperature, solidity, the feeling of darkness and confusion. Then, continuing the exploration with open-eyes and feel the difference. Slowly start to explore the space in the vertical direction while changing levels (from the floor to standing), experiencing the force of gravity, inertia, and momentum.

Jen Hyde-Independent Performing artists, expert in Acro-yoga, Circus, Theater of the oppressed, Games, and Teaching for social justice

1) Matter and Energy. Physical particles and their interactions: collision, rejection, bonding, fusion. 2) Stellar nucleosynthesis, and Origin of Life.

Changing Partner games: (1) Find a partner in the space and establish short interactions (e.g., establish eye-contact for a few seconds and approach without touching, then leave-to feel magnetism-reject, collide, make bonds). (2) Find a partner and play mirrors for a few seconds. With these exercises we aimed to reproduce all possible particle interactions in the space after the Big Bang. A group of children start to come close together until forming a cluster, feeling gravity and density, and guide them towards liberating themselves from that, recreating how stars are born.

The activities above are done at different speeds, including stopping the movement.

Laws of Thermodynamics

Explained from activities above.

Forces: Gravity, Magnetism, Electricity, Nuclear Force

Moving in the space while feeling the centre of gravity, experiencing what happens when changing levels.

Separation between Papatūānuku and Ranginui

Representation by teachers and collaborators using acro-yoga techniques

States of Matter: liquid, solid, gas–vapor

Free-dance experiencing/performing the states of water when changing temperature

The Origin of the Solar System and planets

A group of children form a central cluster (Sun), by making a circle holding hands and recreating collapse, explosion, rotation, initiation of the Star. In the meantime, the rest of the children stay around, individually moving in circles, as asteroids. Careful creation of larger clusters (planetoids) by embracing children along selected orbits, adding more “mass to each planet”

Papatūānuku

Planet Earth: location in the Solar System and Structure

Closed-eyes sensitivity by doing an imaginary trip from the Earth’s core towards the surface, feeling all the Earth’s layers beneath us.

Kaitiakitanga

After explaining the Earth’s Structure, the attention focused on the nature, scale, and value of water and the soil.

b.

1. Te whakapapa o Papatūānuku (The Genealogy of The Earth): Introductory workshop [continued]

Partner Yoga

Introduction to Ruaumoko

Stress and stress-release: earthquakes and volcanic eruptions need to happen to guarantee natural cycles and Life on Earth as we know it

Stretching exercises in partners, feeling tension and its release, weight and its release.

Field-visit: a short excursion to the Eastern Ring Plain of Ruapehu to learn how to identify East, South, West, and North at Onetapu, one of Ngāti Rangi sacred places. Identification of the surrounding volcanoes: Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe, Mt. Ruapehu. Visit to a small valley to recognize the volcanic deposits of Ruapehu, learn how to read the geological history. The children were able to connect the morning dance exercises and recognized that pumice is solidified magma, and its voids are the bubbles.

Each student wrote a poem in native language about Papatūānuku, natural forces, and the need of volcanic eruptions to support Life. Each poem was accompanied by pictures taken by them during the workshop, and an exhibition in the classroom followed.

Jen Hyde-Independent Performing artists, expert in Acro-yoga, Circus, Theater of the oppressed, Games, and Teaching for social justice

Gravity

Continuing theatre-dance

Magma, formation of gas bubbles within magma, volcanic eruptions, and pumice rocks and obsidian

Guided movement and somatic dance, feeling as if we were “magma”, detailing what a viscous behaviour is, the formation of a gas bubble, and the bursting response of the bubble when subject to decompression.

Papatūānuku

Cardinal directios, orientation, and coordinates

Stratigraphy: how we read the story of the Earth by using the Principle of Uniformitarianism and the Law of Superposition. The analogue of the rivers “carving the skin of Papatūānuku” helped to explain river incision and the outcrops of horizontal tephra beds.