8:40pm Monday 28th September 2009
By Sarah Hilley
LESSONS have been exported out of this world at a Highworth primary.
Real rocks from the moon are being examined and handled by children at Northview School.
The school has borrowed the lunar rocks for a week from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), based at North Star. The lunar samples were collected during NASA’s manned space missions to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The whole of Northview School is on a mission to learn about the wider universe and even classes have been renamed as constellations.
Headteacher Margaret Clarke said: “The arrival of the moon rocks created a lot of excitement. The whole school has been looking at space and they are really motivated.
“Children are trying on space suits and imagining they are walking on the moon.”
Pupils have also been dressing up as astronauts in a blackened star studded room – dubbed Mission Control.
Teachers have even suspended a giant flying saucer from the entrance hall roof and class walls are covered in artwork depicting the sun and space.
Eight-year-old Alissa Newman said: “I think the moon would be really dark and bumpy. I would like to go there. If only I could...”
Eight-year-old Aman Mian said: “I think the moon rocks are cool. I heard there is titanium and iron on the moon.”
Orion teacher Jag Bains said: “Seeing the moon pieces puts lessons into context for pupils. They said: ‘wow – are they really from the moon?’ It reassures them about what they are learning in the classroom. We have been learning about Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut on the moon.
“The kids are really interested – they have been doing lots of research at home.”
The STFC is the country’s only authorised source for the loan of moon samples and lunar dust. Since 1984, hundreds of schools, colleges, universities and museums have borrowed them for free. The samples available include stony and pure metal meteorites.
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