Interplanetary travel

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Purpose

Inviting participants to depart from a place of curiosity and wonder in their conversations with others and supports active listening

Description

Disciplines can sometimes be experienced as planets, each with their own language, norms, customs and assumptions. This activity invites participants to explore what life is like on other ‘disciplinary’ planets. By assuming the role of an alien arriving on someone else’s planet for the first time, participants are invited to depart from a mindset of curiosity and wonder. As aliens they’re not expected to know anything,  and even things that look familiar might have a completely different meaning on the other person’s planet. After visiting two (or more) other planets, participants are invited to report back to the home planet in an interplanetary harvest.

Instructions

  1. Introduce the metaphor of planets and the figure of the alien. 
  2. Invite participants to depart from a place of wonder and curiosity, and explain that they’ll be going on a journey to visit two other planets. By using an alien hat, curiosity glasses or other props, invite participants to play with and embody the figure of the alien and the mindset of curiosity and wonder.
  3. Break out in groups of 3, explain the process (see slides) and give participants a printed hand-out with instructions (see PDF). Invite people to assign roles (that rotate with each round): 1 speaker, 1 listener, 1 time-keeper/observer of the listening levels (see activity Listening Levels).
  4. After the sharing in groups, convene an interplanetary harvest in plenary. 
    • First, give some time for individual reflection journaling/drawing, based on the following prompt:  You’ve visited two different planets and you’re reporting back to your home planet about two different planets you visited: ‘Here’s something similar/different from what we do, and I appreciate it for xx reasons’.
    • Then, invite participants to briefly share what they’ve journaled/drawn about, wearing the alien hat as ‘talking stick’.

Phase

Exploration (encounters)

Competences

Perspective-taking
Creativity

Time

90 minutes

Group size

3 – 21 persons

Required space & materials

  • Space for participants to work in groups of three
  • Alien hat and/or curiosity glasses
  • Slides
  • Hand-out

Related tools

Explain your research to an alien
Listening levels

Tips & experience

The alien hat is not only a fun gimmick. It also helps to intentionally embody not-knowing by adding an element of play and performance