BLOG: MARYAM KHALILZADE on her experience at EPSC-dPS 2025 helsinki - steam workshops w/lewibo

(Image: Maryam Khalilzade, September 2025)

This September in Helsinki, we saw a creative dialogue between the students and the scientists during the STEAM workshops of EPSC-DPS Goes Live for Schools 2025. We record here what the artist, Maryam Khalilzade, who worked with the students mentioned about the stop-motion animation process.

Maryam: "Students alike have read and heard much about space and galaxies in textbooks, stories, science fiction, and documentaries. But to experience and explore it through imagination, by

creating, painting, cutting colorful papers, building planets and stars, moving them, making animation, and telling their own stories, is like discovering a secret of the poetry of life through science.

I had the opportunity to lead a stop-motion animation workshop in collaboration with Lecturers Without Borders (LeWiBo) at three schools in Helsinki: Kannelmäen peruskoulu, Töölön yhteiskoulu, and Otaniemi Lukio. These workshops were part of the @EPSC-DPS Planetary Science Conference 2025 in Helsinki, where scientists visited schools to deliver lectures, andstudents, inspired by these talks, created their own animations.

Working with children is always full of learning and new experiences. My approach was to offer diverse materials and animation techniques, encouraging students to explore their creativity through practical, sensory experiences.

In each class, I divided the students into three groups. The first group worked with clay animation techniques using colorful modeling clay. The second group explored cut-out animation, creating using colored paper. The third group experimented with object animation, using printed images of planets with natural materials such as stones, wood, plants, and sand. It was a unique experience for me, as I worked with three different age groups of students: elementary, middle, and high school.

The approach of students at each age was very fascinating to me. In the elementary class, the children were younger and more dependent on their teacher. They began working with a bit of trepidation, needing some time to become comfortable with the materials and express their creativity. In this class, the focus was mainly on play, familiarization, and experimenting with the materials.

The second group, middle school students, was bolder. They quickly expressed their creativity freely. It was as if the class were a game and an experience for them. Students of this age were not afraid of making mistakes or starting over; they were focused on creating their own imaginative stories, inspired by the scientist’s lecture.

For high school students, working with the materials was easy and familiar. In this class, I asked them to first think about their own stories. However, it seemed that, due to watching movies and reading fictional stories, their minds were influenced by clichés and were not as free and original as those of younger children. Nevertheless, the students were able to personalize these stories creatively and enjoyed the process.

Working with all three groups was interesting for me. I enjoyed the experience, many thanks to the schools and Lecturers Without Borders (LeWiBo) for making it possible!"

The stop motion animation compilation is online on our youtube channel.