Great story Walter and Frank!
I was asked by a pre-school teacher I know to bring in a meteorite for her class after a little boy picked up a piece of blacktop outside and asked the teacher if it was a meteorite. She asked me if it was (knowing it probably wasn't) and I said no, it's not but I can show you a real meteorite if you want. Well his eyes lit up and the teacher then asked if I'd bring one in. Well, imagine 15-20 3-4 year olds sitting in a circle as I walk in with a 154 gram Canyon Diablo. Since their too young for the technical talk I told them it was a meteorite and that it came from Outer space, their little eyes just lit right up and they started oohing and Ahhing as I sat down and handed it to a little girl. They notice (like adults) the weight right away. They asked pretty good questions for such a young bunch, things like "it came from space?", "How did it get here?", "Why is it so heavy?". It's really a TON of fun showing kids meteorites, adults too for that matter. Although I'm not a dealer in meteorites, just a collector it's fun to educate the young and old about them. I think we did this thread awhile back but it's always great to read stories like these. Regards, Tom Randall IMCA #6170 >Hi Walter and all, > >Last year I also presented to a class of third graders and thought I'd share >a great way to get the class's attention (as if that is needed). Getting >ready for the presentation, I laid the meteorites out on a metal side table >which the teacher provided. Knowing that part of my talk was on how to >identify meteorites from terrestrial rocks, I obviously bought along a rare >earth magnet. A flash of genius struck ;-) >Holding tightly, I carefully put my rare earth magnet on the metal table. >(You probably know where I'm going). During the talk I asked young "Billy" >to come up and help me demonstrate that meteorites were magnetic. It was his >birthday and being a larger third grade boy made it all the better. I held a >small Canyon Diablo iron and asked him to pick up the magnet and show the >class how it stuck to the meteorite. Young "Billy" reached for the magnet >and......obviously wasn't able to move it, try as he might. Both he and the >class got a good laugh and the class paid even more attention than they >might have. >The third graders were a great age group to share our love of meteorites >with. Their minds were sponges, soaking up every bit of knowledge there was, >they were interested in and liked learning, and they were studying the solar >system. A perfect audience. >A few days later, I received a package containing letters from every one of >the students. I still have them, and hopefully they also still have their >small, weathered piece of the solar system (a great way to get rid of those >small broken weathered NWA pieces). > >Regards, >Frank > >P.S. I probably wouldn't use this trick on older students. They might >actually get the magnet off the table than then pinch their finger between >the magnet and table or meteorite. Coincidently, just the other day I was >playing around with a couple of rare earth magnets and the result was a nice >blood blister to show for it. Guess one of these days I'll grow up :-) > > > >______________________________________________ >Meteorite-list mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list -- ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
