[meteorite-list] Meteorite Talk/Program Topics
From: Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 21 13:24:59 2005 Message-ID: <017c01c52c0f$304188e0$6401a8c0_at_Dell> Super, Rob! Super!!! jerry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com> To: "Meteorite-list Meteoritecentral" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com> Cc: "Al Mitterling" <almitt_at_kconline.com>; "'Robert Verish'" <bolidechaser_at_yahoo.com> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 5:22 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Talk/Program Topics > Hi Al, Bob and List, > > On the subject of giving talks to the public on meteorites, > Bob wrote: > >> ... thanks for reminding me that it may be better to >> focus on only one aspect of our avocation, as opposed >> to "shot-gunning" the audience with a topic such as: >> "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Meteorites". > > Last Friday I took a day off from work and drove up to Ojai > to give an astronomy talk to about 50 Girl Scouts (Juniors) > and a dozen of their parents/troop leaders. As this talk > was meant to cover a sufficient number of topics for the > girls to earn their astronomy badges, it was necessarily > broad. > > However, as bad luck would have it, it was completely socked > in last Friday night, so most of my preparations for covering > the Moon, planets, stars, asteroids, comets, planetary nebulae > and galaxies ended up being for naught. I shifted gears and > gave the talk indoors inside a large group cabin, with all the > scouts on their cots/sleeping bags. Basically a huge slumber > party! > > I had printed up a bunch of star charts to hand out that were > specific to that night's viewing (though applicable for the > next month or so, ignoring the Moon and planet motions), so > they could at least learn the basics of reading a star chart, > and use one to learn a few constellations, star names, and > so forth. The girls showed a lot of interest and asked > surprisingly good questions given their ages (~9-11). > > Several weeks earlier I purchased over a kilo of ordinary > chondrites from Dean Bessey (many of them NWA 869) with the > initial intent of giving them out as prizes for answering > questions or asking good ones. But Dean was very generous > and I ended up with more material than I expected -- enough > that every scout could have their own meteorite if I cut > the majority of them in half. So I fired up the saw and > cut ~50 specimens (which reminds me that I think I need a > new saw blade now!), weighed each one and made labels for > all of them. > > When we got to the subject of asteroids, it was a natural > transition point to explaining about meteoroids, meteors and > meteorites. You should have seen those girls' faces light up > when they learned that they would each be going home with their > very own meteorite! I handed a bunch around for the scouts to > inspect (along with a rare earth magnet) while I continued > talking, and then the questions started coming fast and > furious -- how old are they? Where are they from? Who found > them? How do you know they're meteorites? Where are meteorites > found? Do all meteorites look like this? What are the > different types? Which ones are the rarest? How many have you > found? Where do you hunt for them? How do we hunt for them? > Are they hot when they land? How often do they fall? And > on and on... > > I eventually moved on to other subjects (Deep Impact, the Mars > Rovers, different star types, the Milky Way, the Andromeda > Galaxy, etc.), but every few minutes a new question about > meteorites would pop up. Clearly the hands-on approach to > astronomy has a big impact on interest level. > > Anyway, it was a great experience for me as I was very encouraged > by the high interest -- both from the scouts AND their mothers. > (Quite a few of the moms came up to thank me afterward and tell > me how much they had learned, which meant a lot to me.) In > retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise that it was cloudy as > there is no way I would have had time to cover all the topics that > I had originally planned, and the scouts probably ended up asking > a lot more questions the way it turned out. > > --Rob > > > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Received on Fri 18 Mar 2005 06:06:58 PM PST |
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