[meteorite-list] Meteorite Contest #4 - Meteorites are Educational Because....

From: S.Singletary <jumper_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:30 2004
Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20020604153918.01b7dbc8_at_hesiod>

Meteorites are educational because they allow the teacher to capture the
imagination of the student. A physicist can slide a block of wood down a
ramp, a chemist can make red water turn blue and back again, a
mathematician can give you long formulas and explain the world with much
rigor, but a teacher with a meteorite can do what no other can. A teacher
with a meteorite can put in a student's hand: a piece of the oldest
material known, a witness to the creation of the Earth, a rock that has
fallen from heaven, a piece of an ancient star that exploded, a piece of
Mars or a piece of the Moon. Meteorites are educational because they can
quiet a room full of rowdy fourth and fifth grade students and turn Jr.
high school teenagers from apathetic and angst filled inmates into
attentive and inquisitive students. I say to other educators - "take your
block, your acid and your equations and do what you will. I will send you
students eager to learn each of your fields with one stone from the sky"


This is why I have chosen to study meteorites :)
Steven


Steven Singletary
54-1224
Dept. Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
M.I.T.
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel - 617.253.6398
Fax - 617.253.7102
Received on Tue 04 Jun 2002 03:54:25 PM PDT