Friday, November 20, 2009

Fourth-graders experience Meteors

Yesterday, we were visited by a fourth-grade class from the Children's School of Brooklyn (P.S. 372). Together we went through several educational activities on the theme of "Comets, Asteroids and Meteors" to commemorate the Leonid Meteor Shower this week. We produced a small slideshow and discussed the differences between comets, asteroids and meteors. The students then created sandbox craters to discover the relationship between impactor size, speed and consequent crater size. We made a dry-ice comet out of household materials and demonstrated why it gets a tail as it falls into the inner solar system.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't clear so we couldn't do any solar observations, but the students did get to see the telescopes, observe nearby Riverside Church, and see how different telescopes work. Lastly, we discussed how we, the graduate students got our start in astronomy and science, and what the children could do at this young age to pursue science and mathematics. All in all, it was very successful, and I thank the class and teachers for their visit!

--Cameron

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