Howardites

The answer sheet for the worksheet Three kinds of meteorite. Each answer comes with the reason, so it can be used to mark or to go over the questions with the class.

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KS2 · Ages 7 to 11 (Years 3 to 6)Answer sheet for teachers

Answers: Three kinds of meteorite

  1. C: The asteroid was smashed apartWhen asteroids were smashed apart in collisions, pieces of their cores flew off into space.
  2. C: A stony-ironPallasites are stony-irons: olivine crystals, which are rock, set in shiny metal.
  3. B: IronIron meteorites are almost all metal, so they are very heavy for their size and a magnet grabs them.
  4. D: StonyStony meteorites are mostly rock with small specks of metal, and many are grey inside.
  5. True (It is heavy, so it sank)Metal is heavier than rock, so when an asteroid melted the metal sank to the centre.
  6. False: the right answer is Stony-ironStony-irons are the rarest kind, only about 1 in every 100 meteorites seen to fall.
  7. An iron (accept any answer with the same meaning)Hoba, in Namibia, is an iron meteorite weighing about 60 tonnes.
  8. The metal centres of asteroids that once melted (accept any answer with the same meaning)When some asteroids melted, their metal sank to the middle to form a core. Iron meteorites are pieces of those cores.

Task

Answers will vary. The task comes from the lesson: Make a sorting table with three columns: Stony, Iron, Stony-iron. Draw or describe one example in each column, and add words about how it looks: colour, shininess, specks of metal, crystals. If your school has rock samples, compare them with your table.

Look for work that uses the key words correctly and gives a reason for each point.

Howardites · teacher copy: keep it separate from the pupil worksheets