Workshop participant works to create their own Maya codex using glyphs and numbers.
Humans have looked at the night sky for thousands of years to understand the world around us. Workshop participants take a journey in our Dome to see Latin American skies and listen to stories from indigenous Inca and Maya communities. Presentation was in both Spanish and English languages.
The Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UNC and Duke University offers a professional development workshop for K-16 educators of North Carolina once a year. The workshop, Southern Skies: Stories from Latin America is led by Dr. Gabrielle Vail, a Research Collaborator in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Teachers experience a live bilingual (Spanish and English) dome show, Southern Skies/Cielos del Sur at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. All participants are provided with resources to use in their classrooms and instructions for recreating the lessons with their students. This workshop aligns to several curriculum standards set by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
See photos from the Southern Skies event in 2023
Dr. Gabrielle Vail (left) speaks with workshop participants.
Workshop participant annotates their notes about Maya glyphs and numbers.
Southern Skies/Cielos del Sur resources for educators :
- The lending library book collection: Southern Skies Workshop: Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Resources for Teachers can be borrowed free of cost via this google drive link.
- Southern Skies Field Trip resources
- Southern Skies/Cielos del Sur script
- Southern Skies Resources and Activity: Making a Maya Codex
- Southern Skies Resources and Activity: Making an Inca Khipu
Workshop participant reads Maya Numbers and Calendars resource.
(Left) Several Southern Skies: Stories from Latin America workshop participants gather on the steps of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.
For more information about these resources, please contact: Skylar Zee, outreach coordinator, at zee@email.unc.edu.
This workshop was supported in part by grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI National Resource Centers program. The content of this workshop does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
