Micrometeorite - webquest

Micrometeorite Webquest
(special thanks)

Written by Gregory W. Corder and specifically intended for use by Thomas Harrison Middle School's students and teachers. Written December 2001.

Science Goal: The student will explore the use of a magnetic field.

Science Objective: The student will collect and examine micrometeorites. The student will keep a record of his/her work.

Technology Objective: The student will retrieve information using the world wide web.

Directions:
Follow the hotlinks to discover how to collect micrometeorites at home. Use a field notebook to make notes of each step as you surf the pages. Your first stop is gathering materials (click here).

Product: (what you turn in)
While conducting this experiment, keep a journal of your work. (You may want to use the field notebook used above.) Each time that you work on this experiment, you will need to complete a journal entry. Each journal entry should include a date (10%), description with complete sentences (40%), and drawing(s) (40%). The writing should be neat enough for your teacher to understand (10%). You should have 5 journal entries at a minimum.

Enrichment: Find information about:

meteor/meteorite composition (what are they made of?)
meteor/meteorite origin (where do they come from?)
dangers of meteor/meteorite
space debris other than meteor/meteorite

Space.com is a good place to start.

Special thanks to
8th grade THMS students Louis, Rodney, Junior, Jessica, Alina, Samantha, and Seth for your help with the pictures for this activity (Harrisonburg City School class of 2006).

Also, special thanks to
Dr. Brian Augustine (JMU chemistry dept.) and Dr. Chris Hughes (JMU physics dept.) for allowing me use of their research labs to image and analyze the samples.