Impact Crater Experiments

Contexualisation

One way to introduce this activity is to look at images of craters and discuss them:

• What are they?
  
• How big are they?
  
• How were they made?
  
• How big were the objects that impacted to make them?

You could use your own telescope (or the Faulkes Telescope) to look for impact craters on the moon. Alternatively you can find images of impact craters and news reports or look at Google Moon.

Experimentation

Learners think about and design an experiment to investigate crater impact. What are their hypotheses and how can these be tested? Typical experiments involve dropping objects of various sizes into trays of flour from various heights. Apparently it is good to use a fine layer of chocolate powder over the flour :-) Here is a worksheet here is a full lesson plan.

Data Capture

You might want digital cameras, video cameras and/or mobile phones to capture images of the crater impacts, record the experimental set-up and method and maybe also for learners to record their observations and commentaries.

You will want rulers to measure the size of craters made and scales to measure mass of the impacting material.  You can record all data from everyone's experiments into a spreadsheet to facilitate analysis. If you use a shared online spreadsheet you may be able to combine data with experimenters in other schools around the world.

Data Sharing and Analysis

Using ShoZu on mobile phones photographic data can be sent straight to a photo-sharing site such as flickr, remember to 'tag' your data in a way that makes it easy for you to find it. Similarly, video captured to mobile phones can be tagged and sent straight to You Tube (or similar sites) for sharing. Alternatively, data captured on phones or cameras can be transferred to laptops or PCs and uploaded for sharing at a later stage.

You can set up a spreadsheet (like this one ) to collect numeric and other data from the experiments. Data can be added using a form (like this one ).

Learners can download or use online their own and others data, graph it, reflect on it, incorporate it in reports, share it with experts, etc...

Collaboration with Experts

It can be very engaging for learners to communicate live or asynchronously with science experts. Try using our custom search to find local UK experts and then introduce yourself using and explain what you want to do using e-mail. Often you can use Skype or similar to establish live audio or video conferences or get experts to reply to learners' e-mails or comment on their blog posts. For live communication it is good to get learners to prepare a few questions they want to ask an expert some time before the conference.

Publishing Reports

Learner could write their reports as Google Docs which can be published online. Remember to embed the photos, images and spreadsheet data and charts in the reports.

Alternatively, you might set-up a class blog (using Blogger or similar) for each group in a class to post their experiments to (see an example for wind energy experiments).

Learners could make audio-visual reports and share them on You Tube or slide and audio presentations and share them on slideshare.

Another interesting approach is to use Photo-Stories for learners to create comic like reports on their experiments and learning. This can be done using Comic Life.

Other Resources

crater impact simulation, educational resources from the faulkes telescope project, a NASA education activities, or search for more...

Technology

There are plenty of alternatives to the stuff below but these are things we have used and found useful.

Google Docs
You need to get an account at Google Docs. Introductory training materials are available here. Google Docs is a bit like an online (you can use it offline too) version of Office - there are editors for documents, presentations and spreadsheets.

Flickr
Is a space you can store and share photos. Here is an introduction. You need to create an account to use it.

You Tube
You Tube is a space you can find video clips and store and share your own video clips. Here is an introduction to You Tube.

ShoZu
ShoZu is an application that can be installed on many mobile phones. First you need to create and account, then you can use it to upload images and video straight from the phone to online sharing sites like flickr - you also need accounts on these. This tends to be quicker and easier than transferring to a computer and then uploading. ShoZu is free. However, their are data costs - many mobile operators now have reasonable mobile data plans - e.g. t-mobile maximum 1 pound a day when you use it.

Google Experts Search
This is just a search tool that prioritises UK academic sites and web pages with contact details on them. The intention is to make it easier to find experts that you might then decided to contact and try to involve in learning collaborations. Try a search using a topic of interest and possibly a location - e.g. dinosaurs london.

Skype
You can run Skype on your PC, laptop or phone to make voice over Internet calls. Experts or others you want to collaborate with may have Skype ids you can contact them on. You need to download Skype and create your own account.

Blogger
A blog is an easy way to publish to the Internet. You can set-up an account at blogger, create a blog and then post online or send your posts to the blog by email or from a phone.

Comic Life
Comic Life is a (25 dollar) programme you can install on Macs or PCs. It allows you to easily make comic like photo-stories using photos or stills from video. Here is an introduction for education.