AW: [meteorite-list] Elementary school presentation tips?

From: Larry Lebofsky <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Feb 14 18:00:09 2006
Message-ID: <1139957987.43f260e3ae8c0_at_hindmost.LPL.Arizona.EDU>

Gary:

Went away for a few hours and now trying to catch up on the emails.

If you do the comet (not sure I would do the comet AND meteorites on the same
day -- too much for just about any grade level), be sure to do it "safely" ---
gloves and eye protection.

As an aside, I might be one of the few people to be paid big bucks for doing
this demo: Discovery Channel flew someone in from England to do the interview,
hired a local camera person, and spent 3 hours taping 4 or 5 comets (we had to
provide the supplies). My wife assisted, but only her hands were seen (so they
did not have to pay her), Michael Dorn (Worf from Startrek) was the narrator,
and I got paid 4 quarters!!! Over 25 cents an hour!

With respect to doing the Solar System model, there are a number of scale
models around. We do one with macrame (see how that translates; the stuff you
hang plants with) so that they get a good feel for the scale of the Solar
System. If you have enough space (pun intended) with a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) Sun,
Pluto is 200 feet (60 meters) away. Perfect for a playground and you can get
the kids to "revolve" around the Sun.

Larry

Quoting "Gary K. Foote" <gary_at_webbers.com>:

> Thanks for the link Martin.
>
> Gary
>
> On 14 Feb 2006 at 10:30, Dave Mouat wrote:
>
> > Hi Martin and fellow Listees
> >
> > Martin reminded me of what else I threw in: ammonia; but I only had
> ammonia-laced
> > soap. That added a bit-- The school never checked the ingredients I used
> and
> > might not have known what was controlled.
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > Martin Horejsi wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Walter and all,
> > >
> > > The dry ice comet is a great demo if you are allowed to do it.
> > > Sometimes dry ice and ammonia are on the elementary school banned
> > > list.
> > >
> > > This activity is one of the more accurate demos possible, and usually
> > > you can get great off-gassing jets projected using an overhead.
> > >
> > > The activity can be found here under comet basics:
> > >
> > > http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/guides.html
> > >
> > > And a cool pic if you haven't seen it is in my latest Accretion Desk
> > > article at the Meteorite Times .com is a pic of Carolyn Shoemaker and
> > > Paul Wild are building a dry ice comet. Here is the pic's caption:
> > >
> > > "In a most memorable convergence of people in time, Paul Wild who
> > > discovered comet Wild2 in 1978, and Carolyn Shoemaker, the discoverer
> > > of more comets than anyone else on this planet build a model comet
> > > with dry ice, ammonia and sand."
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Martin
> > >
Received on Tue 14 Feb 2006 05:59:47 PM PST