Students create their own depression craters to study.
Warren Middle School sixth-graders Andrew Shi, Shreyas Sekhar, Zoe Wang and Ella Esposito study the variables used to create miniature impact craters in science class.WARREN -- Impact craters are formed when pieces of rock or ice -- otherwise known as meteoroids, asteroids or comets -- crash into a planet and leave a depression in the ground.
At the Warren Middle School, sixth-grade teachers afforded their students a hands-on opportunity to study impact craters.
Last month, armed with safety goggles and measurement tools, the sixth-graders created impact craters by dropping small metal spheres of varying sizes and weights from different heights into "sediment" they made out of cocoa, flour and sand. They then recorded how size, angle and speed affected the appearance of the crater.
"The design inside is really cool," said sixth-grader Anthony Azevedo, as he examined the crater's rings.
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