We may not be able to take children on field trips to the moon (yet!) but this week year 3 and 5 got their hands on some important samples of science history with some rare samples of moon rock and meteorites for a truly out of this world experience.

Children were encouraged to reach for the stars and learn more about the Universe around us during this interactive experience; where they could actually touch a piece of space rock and genuine meteorites. These rare samples were provided by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to inspire children to get involved in Science and to complement our classroom studies.

The pack included a 1.2 billion year old piece of Mars rock and a 4.3 billion year old nickel meteorite.  It is unlikely that students will ever get the chance to hold an object older than this, as Earth itself was formed 4.6 billion years ago.  Year 3 used their observation and classification skills to identify different meteorites amongst ‘Earth rock’ samples.  Whilst year 5 looked at lunar samples collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s during some of NASA’s first manned space missions to the moon.  During these missions a staggering 382kg of material was brought back to Earth – mostly for use by scientists, but small quantities have been used to create the educational packs that we’ve been lucky enough to have in school this week.