Where do meteorites fit in the school curriculum?
Meteorites link naturally to rocks, Earth and space, forces, materials, the history of science and geography, from primary school to A-level.
Meteorites are a gift to teachers because they cross so many subjects. In England's National Curriculum, they fit well with the Year 3 rocks unit, where pupils compare and group rocks by appearance and simple properties, and with Year 5 Earth and space, which covers the Sun, Moon and planets. Pupils can compare meteorites with Earth rocks, discuss why the Moon is cratered and learn that rocks can arrive from space.
At Key Stage 3, meteorites support work on the Solar System, gravity, density, the rock cycle, elements and compounds, and the particle model, for instance explaining why a meteor glows. At GCSE, they help with kinetic energy calculations, radioactive decay and half-life, magnetism, and in some specifications space physics and the life cycle of stars. At A-level, geology students can examine petrology and thin sections, physicists can model orbits and impacts, and chemists can discuss isotopes and mass spectrometry.
Other nations' curricula have similar strands: Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence includes space and Earth's materials, and Wales, Northern Ireland and many other countries include Earth and space science.
Beyond science, meteorites link to history, through falls such as Ensisheim and L'Aigle; to geography, through Antarctica and deserts; to maths, through scale, speed and data; and to citizenship, through ownership law and the ethics of selling specimens. A single specimen or story can anchor several lessons.