The next time children need bedtime stories, they can watch astronauts reading to them from space
‘What better role models to engage kids in science and to engage them in reading?’
Capturing the attention of children for longer than a few minutes is a task not many are up to performing, not even experienced parents. But Patricia Tribe, the former director of education at Space Center Houston, may have just the solution for that – Story Time from Space.
Story Time from Space is exactly what it sounds like – it features astronauts reading beloved children’s books right from the International Space Station (and yes, they are floating around with the books).
It was started by the nonprofit Global Space Education Foundation to show children that learning and literacy can also be entertainment. A part of it was also to engage them with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), like astronaut Kate Rubins does in the video above.
“What better role models to engage kids in science and to engage them in reading?” Tribe told HuffPost. “You’re not only looking and listening to the books, you’re looking around the International Space Station.”
The books are selected by the team keeping in mind diversity, both in terms of who is reading the books and the books themselves. So the books not only cover a range of topics that different age groups and genders can relate to, but they also come from an assortment of astronauts that read in different languages.
Story Time from Space is also planning on adding child-friendly science experiments that were conducted on the International Space Station to the mix.
“Everybody thinks space is pretty cool, so it’s a nice way to capture the audience and capture the kids so they are enjoying space,” said Tribe.
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