Through Heritage Lottery Funding this year, and with the help of our partners (Macmillan Science and Education,The British Library, the Guardian and Camley Street Natural Park) Global Generation have started a project in which young people are exploring cultural creation stories alongside the Universe Story, using the plight of the bees as a catalyst for growing meaningful narratives of environmental stewardship.
Young people from our Generator Leadership Programme (now Big Bang Ambassadors) are at the core of this project which will culminate in resources for teachers to use in schools.
Here are some of the freefall writings that have come out of the project so far, covering many topics from sessions about the plight of the bees and why they are essential to our story, to workshops with Journey of the Universe collaborators Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. These writings are from our young people and the Global Generation staff.
The Universe brings togetherness. Togetherness in the same way it brought together every atom possibly needed to create what we call our Universe today. That togetherness evokes the idea of wanting to be together. Together with ourselves and the sun, together with ourselves and friends and family, lovers and all those things that evoke the feeling that you want the togetherness to remain at one.
Gabrielle, 16, Senior Generator
What the Universe Story activates in me is a sense of holistic belonging - not belonging to the trappings of 21st Century consciousness, but a bigger, deeper, more connected sense of belonging to a more meaningful me, to a more communal society and to an indescribably ever-changing yet ever-present whole. I find myself feeling two almost polar opposite ways - one being utterly and completely enthralled and in awe of the majestic and wonderful cosmos that has (and continues to) work and evolve for billions of years, and the other being an awesomely deep sense of groundedness.
Rachel, Global Generation Youth Manager
One thing I’ve learnt from the Universe Story is a sense of the importance of compassion. We are interdependent with all around us.The plants, the animals, the Earth, the stars, the sun. We have a responsibility to be sustainable, to use our intelligence to improve life for all beings. I think learning about the Universe story has given me more of a sense of being and consciousness, almost purpose as I really feel that we are so lucky to be here in such an amazing connected world, that we should make the most of it.
The Universe. Togetherness, unity and constant development. Ability to bring together the smallest of objects with the massive. Stars making them all relevant and interdependent.
Jaal, 16, Big Bang Ambassador
The wisdom of bees. A lesson from bees to humankind, the complex social colony structure they create, thriving on nature, setting an example mankind could follow. The work of the honey bees resemble a rule that nature teaches for people to develop a well ordered democratic human kingdom. The hive resembles leadership, efficiency and growth. The wax itself shows the growth about producing energy and conserving product. A well taught lesson to preserve, easily dismissed. The wisdom of the bees.
Nene, 16, Big Bang Ambassador
The Universe Story makes me wonder about me as an individual and us as a collective. When I breathe I do it through my own consciousness but so do they. The others around me breathe too.
Finding common ground, we breathe. The Universe Story makes me wonder about me as an individual and us as a collective.
We find common ground, we breathe.
Liz, 15, Big Bang Ambassador
Both science and religion are worlds that leave space for questions, hopes and even support.
I think science and religion are very complementary. We just need to stop that idea that they are opposite worlds. They look at the same thing using different starting points: different question. Science → how, Religion → why. Science and religion could be sisters in the explanation of the world exploring the ‘seen’ and the ‘unseen’ exploring territories in which the other can’t reach.
Maybe for some of us, science is the first option to explain the world but it is wise to consider that religion might help in answering the last of the questions.
Science changed her dimensions in me and it is definitely dominant in me now. But I still have space for religion. That space in which I can go and be free…
Silvia, Global Generation Youth Programme Facilitator
I found it interesting how from one little speck how far the Universe has come.
The way the Universe has evolved makes me excited to find out what’s going to happen next e.g. new discoveries, life on another planet maybe??
Where did the big bang come from?
As the star expanded, what’s going to happen next as it carries on expanding?
What was there before the Big Bang?
How did evolution start? Where and how was the bacteria formed from in order to start life?
What is the supernova?
How did the Big Bang happen?
Will there ever be another big bang?
Will there ever be life on another planet?
Nadia, Generator
Cultural creation stories all share threads of the Earth being in want of something - that something being life and most importantly humans. But they also humble us as we are caretakers of the world with responsibilities towards it. The Earth is a gift that shouldn't be taken for granted and should be respected.
There also seems to be a common thread of a higher being or deity, making me think that all civilisations were in awe of their own intricate human nature, that life is so wonderful and creative that there must be more to it than what we can see in front of our own eyes.
Raiesa, Global Generation Project Assistant
What stands out for me is the lengths that astronauts/cosmonauts took to fulfill their thirst for knowledge and their curiosity. The point of perspectives and how they vary struck me, giving me the sense of how not only does the world differ on our perspective from one person to another, but also how we (as an Earth) are viewed by the Universe and our Galaxy.
Ranya, Generator, 14
I feel thankful to witness discoveries which occurred a long time ago: the redshift, the Big Bang Theory, how Earth is. It is pretty awesome to think that we are living in a sphere which is made out of elements and compounds combined to form gases, the water for us to breathe and drink. Also how an atom forms to form a molecule to create essential things in life that we humans need such as trees.
Emma, Generator, 15
Young people from our Generator Leadership Programme (now Big Bang Ambassadors) are at the core of this project which will culminate in resources for teachers to use in schools.
Here are some of the freefall writings that have come out of the project so far, covering many topics from sessions about the plight of the bees and why they are essential to our story, to workshops with Journey of the Universe collaborators Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. These writings are from our young people and the Global Generation staff.
The Universe brings togetherness. Togetherness in the same way it brought together every atom possibly needed to create what we call our Universe today. That togetherness evokes the idea of wanting to be together. Together with ourselves and the sun, together with ourselves and friends and family, lovers and all those things that evoke the feeling that you want the togetherness to remain at one.
Gabrielle, 16, Senior Generator
What the Universe Story activates in me is a sense of holistic belonging - not belonging to the trappings of 21st Century consciousness, but a bigger, deeper, more connected sense of belonging to a more meaningful me, to a more communal society and to an indescribably ever-changing yet ever-present whole. I find myself feeling two almost polar opposite ways - one being utterly and completely enthralled and in awe of the majestic and wonderful cosmos that has (and continues to) work and evolve for billions of years, and the other being an awesomely deep sense of groundedness.
Rachel, Global Generation Youth Manager
One thing I’ve learnt from the Universe Story is a sense of the importance of compassion. We are interdependent with all around us.The plants, the animals, the Earth, the stars, the sun. We have a responsibility to be sustainable, to use our intelligence to improve life for all beings. I think learning about the Universe story has given me more of a sense of being and consciousness, almost purpose as I really feel that we are so lucky to be here in such an amazing connected world, that we should make the most of it.
The Universe. Togetherness, unity and constant development. Ability to bring together the smallest of objects with the massive. Stars making them all relevant and interdependent.
Jaal, 16, Big Bang Ambassador
The wisdom of bees. A lesson from bees to humankind, the complex social colony structure they create, thriving on nature, setting an example mankind could follow. The work of the honey bees resemble a rule that nature teaches for people to develop a well ordered democratic human kingdom. The hive resembles leadership, efficiency and growth. The wax itself shows the growth about producing energy and conserving product. A well taught lesson to preserve, easily dismissed. The wisdom of the bees.
Nene, 16, Big Bang Ambassador
The Universe Story makes me wonder about me as an individual and us as a collective. When I breathe I do it through my own consciousness but so do they. The others around me breathe too.
Finding common ground, we breathe. The Universe Story makes me wonder about me as an individual and us as a collective.
We find common ground, we breathe.
Liz, 15, Big Bang Ambassador
Both science and religion are worlds that leave space for questions, hopes and even support.
I think science and religion are very complementary. We just need to stop that idea that they are opposite worlds. They look at the same thing using different starting points: different question. Science → how, Religion → why. Science and religion could be sisters in the explanation of the world exploring the ‘seen’ and the ‘unseen’ exploring territories in which the other can’t reach.
Maybe for some of us, science is the first option to explain the world but it is wise to consider that religion might help in answering the last of the questions.
Science changed her dimensions in me and it is definitely dominant in me now. But I still have space for religion. That space in which I can go and be free…
Silvia, Global Generation Youth Programme Facilitator
I found it interesting how from one little speck how far the Universe has come.
The way the Universe has evolved makes me excited to find out what’s going to happen next e.g. new discoveries, life on another planet maybe??
Where did the big bang come from?
As the star expanded, what’s going to happen next as it carries on expanding?
What was there before the Big Bang?
How did evolution start? Where and how was the bacteria formed from in order to start life?
What is the supernova?
How did the Big Bang happen?
Will there ever be another big bang?
Will there ever be life on another planet?
Nadia, Generator
Cultural creation stories all share threads of the Earth being in want of something - that something being life and most importantly humans. But they also humble us as we are caretakers of the world with responsibilities towards it. The Earth is a gift that shouldn't be taken for granted and should be respected.
There also seems to be a common thread of a higher being or deity, making me think that all civilisations were in awe of their own intricate human nature, that life is so wonderful and creative that there must be more to it than what we can see in front of our own eyes.
Raiesa, Global Generation Project Assistant
What stands out for me is the lengths that astronauts/cosmonauts took to fulfill their thirst for knowledge and their curiosity. The point of perspectives and how they vary struck me, giving me the sense of how not only does the world differ on our perspective from one person to another, but also how we (as an Earth) are viewed by the Universe and our Galaxy.
Ranya, Generator, 14
I feel thankful to witness discoveries which occurred a long time ago: the redshift, the Big Bang Theory, how Earth is. It is pretty awesome to think that we are living in a sphere which is made out of elements and compounds combined to form gases, the water for us to breathe and drink. Also how an atom forms to form a molecule to create essential things in life that we humans need such as trees.
Emma, Generator, 15