Tell-tale signs of a shooting star – Comets, meteors and craters in the Solar System
To many ancient civilisations, the tale of a shooting star was an omen of things to come. In this series of activities, you will learn that a shooting star or meteor is actually a piece of rock that lights up as it travels through the Earth’s atmosphere. You will also learn why this happens and investigate how craters are formed when a meteor strikes a planetary surface. Extension activities focus on why small meteors can cause large impact craters and why we find so few craters on Earth.
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Download full classroom activity (with answers):
Keywords: Science, Literacy, Meteor, Shooting star, Craters, Earth's atmosphere
Material:• Top lid of A4 carton box (typical size 30 x 22 x 7 cm)
• Large plastic bag
• Flour 1 kg
• Glitter 50 g
• Chocolate powder 50-100 g 5-10 marbles of different sizes
• Small plastic spoon
• Ruler
• Sieve
• Phone camera
• Copy of Worksheet – The tale of a shooting star (1 copy per pupil)
• Picture of a crater on Mars (see Appendix)