[meteorite-list] Meteorite Talk/Program Topics

From: moni waiblinger-seabridge <moni2555_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 21 13:24:59 2005
Message-ID: <BAY103-F5E3709E6FE3D63D7D1A8CCD4B0_at_phx.gbl>

Good evening Rob and list,

really, like we ever could stop Bob V. (any Bob or Rob on the list actually)
talking about meteorites! ;-)
Bob V.s passion is meteorites and he is so very fortunate and knowledgeable
to have so much success in it!

I tried to educated students in a fifth grade two years ago and I had a
great time and basically just covered the rough draft.
They really did enjoy holding the meteorites I passed around. Also the
weight and putting on a magnet was just amazing to them how they were so
heavy and being so attracted.
I still have to learn a lot more to be comfortable to give more lessons.
But I am going to. I always know more than the children! That is a plus!
It is very exciting for the children or adults I run into to hold a
meteorite. I have several meteorite pendants that I wear all the time and
whenever I meet someone new, I always make sure they will hold it in their
hands.

Sternengruss, Moni


>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>
>Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Talk/Program Topics
>Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:22:34 -0800
>
>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
>
>
>
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Received on Sat 19 Mar 2005 03:36:19 AM PST