Around 65 million years ago an asteroid about 10 kilometres wide hit the Earth, eventually contributing to the death of over 75% of living organisms on Earth, including the dinosaurs. Impacts like this only occur once every 100 million years, but impacts of a smaller size are not as rare and have the potential to cause serious local effects such as tsunamis and earthquakes. Secondary students from schools across Wales came together to learn about these effects through their involvement in an innovative project ‘Back Down2Earth’. Students learnt about Physics and Geology, using Astronomy and Planetary Science topics such as the study of asteroids and comets impacting on the Earth to focus attention on global climate change and how it can significantly alter the evolution of life on Earth.

Local students from Cardiff studying GCSE or A level Geology learnt about the effects of asteroid collisions by using the ‘Impact Calculator’, where they chose the size, density, angle and velocity of an asteroid and smashed it on the Earth to see the size and effects of the craters formed and the kinetic energies that were involved. The young people also attended workshops and talks around Cardiff, one of which included collecting data from an X-ray Diffractometer machine, thus giving them a valuable experience of the practical analytical techniques used by scientists.

The project was a collaboration between Cardiff University, the National Museum of the Wales, the Faulkes Telescope Project, BBC Wales, Techniquest and Glamorgan University. It was an extension of an already existing successful project called ‘Down2Earth’. The organisers wanted to widen the reach of their project, so they also distributed loan boxes containing samples of meteorites, rocks and dinosaur fossils to all the schools across Wales. Along with this they also sent a booklet and CD which explained how asteroid impacts may affect ‘Our Place in the Future’, as well as information including careers guidance for students, and information on the topics which are being researched by academics at Cardiff University. The purpose of this was to encourage young people from Wales to go on to higher education, and to consider Cardiff University and learn about all the exciting research that goes on there.

The leader of the project was Dr Sarah Roberts. She is Director of Education of the Faulkes Telescope Project and has a PhD in Astronomy from Cardiff University. She said:

‘Motivating students in subjects such as Physics and Geology is a very worthwhile activity, and it is extremely important to advertise the type of research that Cardiff University departments are carrying out to students who may wish to come here to study in their careers.’

This project certainly benefitted the students, but engagement activities like this also benefit the Universities and organisations involved. For example the scientists became better communicators, whilst the non-scientists came to understand the process of research much more clearly. In particular it benefitted the University to have a collaborative education project that was shared by a number of schools, and which engaged a new audience about their research.

Interesting Links

The Faulkes Telescope Project

Down2Earth Website

Lead: Dr Sarah Roberts, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University