Moon Rocks Land at the Junior School

Year 3 and 5 had an out of world experience at the end of the Spring Term. Thanks to a loan from NASA and the Science and Technology Facilities Council they had the opportunity to view and handle a selection of rocks from the Moon and space. 

Between 1969 and 1972, six manned Apollo missions successfully landed on the Moon, allowing the astronauts to collect samples and bring them back to Earth for study. Some of these samples have been preserved in acrylic disks and along with a range of meteorites, tektites and fossils are available for a week-long loan to schools.

Pupils and staff were fascinated by the rocks when they arrived at KES, which included amongst other samples:

• Orange soil collected by Apollo 17
• A large iron meteorite from Argentina with a recorded history dating back to 1576
• An ammonite fossil 65 million years old 
• A 14.7 million year old ‘Moldavite impactite’, glass formed when a meteorite landed in Germany.

Year 3 had been learning all about 'rocks' and used their knowledge of classification to explore which rocks were from Earth and outer space. Year 5 were at the end of their 'space' topic, where they had just learnt about the phases of the Moon and asteroid impacts. Using the NASA Moon Scheme was a perfect end to the topic where the children could hold real samples of Moon rocks and meteorites. 

Reflecting on their experience handling the rocks, some of our pupils commented:

• "Learning about the space rocks was really fun because we had to guess if a rock was from outer space or not. Some of these rocks came from millions of miles away!" 
• "I loved learning about the Moon rocks because we usually see photos but in science, we got to hold real meteorites and use a digital microscope to look at them in more detail." 
• "It was an amazing experience holding something from outer space. It felt like I was the second person to ever touch a meteorite!" 
• "I enjoyed using a Magna probe to explore if the rocks were meteorites as many of them are iron and magnetic from the asteroid belt." 

Recent STEM Highlights at the Junior School

• The Science programme at the Junior School was recently rated ‘Great for STEM’ in The Week’s Independent Schools Guide
• Mr Carter, the Junior School’s Science Co-ordinator, has been shortlisted for the Primary Curriculum Leader of the Year award in the TES Schools Awards 2023.
• A Year 6 team has just won the Years 4-6 Award at the National Final of the PA Raspberry Pi Competition.