Craters and the End of the Dinosaurs

We learned about asteroids, meteors and meteorites.

We crashed different sized meteorites (balls) onto Earth (a biscuit tin with sand and a light layer of chocolate powder).

They made different sized craters (the larger the ball the larger the crater).  We measured the crater in centimeters with our rulers, and also the surrounding area that had been disturbed after the collision.

We tried crashing the same sized meteorite (marble) from different heights (which we measured with a metre stick).  We found that the difference in height affected the size of the crater and also the depth of the crater.

All this talk of meteorites and craters led us to talk about dinosaurs.  We know that dinosaurs became extinct after a large asteroid hit the earth.  Some of the dinosaurs may have been hit, others may have been killed by a pyroclastic flow, or probably from lack of food caused by an Ice Age (because lots of dust from the impact would have blocked out the sun’s rays causing the whole earth to become very cold).

Interesting Fact: Komodo dragons are very closely related to dinosaurs.