STONYHURST ST MARY’S HALL
Pupils from Stonyhurst St Mary’s Hall handled rare samples of moon rocks and meteorites recently during a series of science lessons that were literally out of this world.
P
upils were encouraged to reach for the stars and learn more about the Universe around us during a week-long interactive experience of astronomy as part of their study of The Earth and Space this term. Children between the age of 9 and 13 years were given the unique opportunity to touch a piece of space rock not of this Earth as they were welcomed to handle some genuine meteorites.
young people to get involved in science and complement classroom studies. Stonyhurst Prep School pupils were fascinated by the pack provided by STFC which included a 1.2 billionyear-old piece of Mars rock and a 4.3 billion-year-old nickel meteorite. It is unlikely that pupils will ever get the chance to hold an object older than this, as Earth itself was formed 4.6 billion years ago.
Sarah Concannon, Stonyhurst’s Year 5 teacher, said: ‘The Earth and Space is already a fascinating topic but many of the objectives covered involve things that are hard to picture and impossible to interact with – it’s not like we can arrange a class trip to the Moon! However, the lunar samples brought back to Earth by the NASA astronauts
These rare samples were provided to Stonyhurst free of charge by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) which provides educational packs in a bid to inspire 204
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