Anthias & The Open University Meteorites Outreach

Anthias had the pleasure of hosting the Open University’s meteorites for some outreach in Science Week in March. We were able to share these amazing rocks with children local to our office in Cambridgeshire.

Diane and Caroline took the meteorites to a pre-school in a neighbouring village. The session began with Diane getting the children to pretend they were planets in the solar system and demonstrating how the planets moved around the sun. The children then sat down to handle the meteorites, they were enthralled, gently touching them and passing them on. Diane told them that they could indeed one day become astronauts and travel to space and they were delighted.
They asked incredible questions such as ‘is this rock melted cheese?’ and ‘is the moon sparkly?’ They adored touching all the moon rocks and meteorites commenting on the feel of each one. We received lovely feedback from the pre-school that the session inspired their play for the rest of the day.

The meteorites were also enjoyed by much older children at a local secondary school, serving as excellent inspiration for the year 8 space projects. Diane gave a presentation on space via Teams during their science lesson, then the next day attended school in person to give the children the opportunity to handle the meteorites. These included rocks from mars, the moon and a meteorite which contains particles older than the solar system!

Diane took the meteorites to the swimming club in Biggleswade where swimmers, parents and lifeguards (off-duty!) enjoyed learning about and handling them.

STEM outreach is a big part of what we do as a micro- business, to give back to our local community. It’s so important to inspire the future generations to love science!