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West Hatch High School students get to grips with the Moon

Exciting and rare samples of moon rocks and a collection of impressive meteorites landed at West Hatch High School, Chigwell, when students enjoyed a unique, interactive experience of astronomy during their science lessons.

 

Exciting and rare samples of moon rocks and a collection of impressive meteorites landed at West Hatch High School, Chigwell, when students enjoyed a unique, interactive experience of astronomy during their science lessons.

Highlights included getting up close to hand-sized meteorites enabling the students to touch a real piece of space.

Included in the collection was a 1.2 billion-year-old piece of Mars and a 4.3 billion-year-old nickel meteorite. The solar system is 4.6 billion years old.

Science teacher Phillip Peters organised the fantastic opportunity which coincided with Year 7 and Year 8 students' study of space, astronomy and the Moon.

As well as Year 7 and 8 students getting the opportunity to see the samples, students and staff could also attend after-school sessions to get an even closer look of the moon rocks and meteorites.

The samples, provided by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), were collected during the later 1960s and 1970s during some of NASA’s first manned space missions.

Professor John Womersley, STFC’s Chief Executive Officer, said: "This is a great opportunity for young people to be able to see, touch and really experience such important and exciting messengers from space - turning science fiction into science fact.”