Worthing students relived the excitement of the first lunar landing during Moon Week and got to hold something not just priceless and irreplaceable but also a piece of historyWorthing students relived the excitement of the first lunar landing during Moon Week and got to hold something not just priceless and irreplaceable but also a piece of history
Worthing students relived the excitement of the first lunar landing during Moon Week and got to hold something not just priceless and irreplaceable but also a piece of history

British Science Week: Martian meteorites and Moon samples rain down on Worthing schools

Martian meteorites and samples from the Moon landings went on a tour of Worthing schools in the run-up to British Science Week.

St Oscar Romero School in Goring ‘borrowed the Moon’ and had a week of focused lessons, with students learning how the Moon was formed and facts about meteorites. During the school’s Moon Week, more than 700 students were able to handle some amazing artefacts and teachers said it really created a buzz in science lessons.

Teacher Peter Clarke said: “The Science and Technology Facilities Council has sets of fascinating meteorites which schools can loan for a week, with artefacts actually owned by NASA and the US government. These include Martian meteorites, a large iron meteorite found in Argentina 450 years ago and a 14.7million-year-old meteorite, among many others. But the main attraction is a set of samples taken from the lunar surface during the Apollo landings between 1969 and 1972.”

Mid-week, the samples were taken on tour for the day, with St Oscar Romero visiting six primary schools in the area, giving a further 400 students an opportunity to get up close to these pieces of the Moon.

The week ended with an evening event for parents, where families were given a short presentation with a Google Earth tour of the Moon and information on the significant events of the Apollo 11 landing, followed by the opportunity to see the samples and get pictures taken with the Moon.

Mr Clarke added: “It was a really exciting week and getting the primary schools and parents involved was really special. We re-lived the excitement of that first lunar landing and got to hold something not just priceless and irreplaceable but also a piece of history.”

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