For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-lunar-samples
Tuesday is our regular Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and since we’ve been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing for the last few days, here’s a rare educational opportunity you might be able to work on with your local library: borrowing some actual moon rock samples for students to examine.
This is not a homeschool program specifically — in fact, it’s a rather tightly controlled NASA education program that is open only to paid employees of educational institutions who attend a special training program at a NASA site. But professional librarians do qualify, and if this catches your imagination you might consider working with your local library to make it into a special community education activity.
The program and the application process are quite elaborate — they’re outlined on NASA’s educational materials website:
If homeschoolers were to collaborate with their local library they might not only be able to bring this distinctive educational opportunity to their community, but they could also generate favorable publicity for all concerned. (“Moon Rocks Coming to Town,” the local paper will shout.) 😊
Here’s a NASA video that describes the sources of the samples, the sample program, and the procedures involved in requesting and storing the borrowed materials:
This isn’t a simple weekend project — you’d have to work on it in association with a local library over a period of several months. But it’s an exceptional opportunity to bring genuine samples from an alien world right into your students’ hands. That makes it worth exploring. 🚀
What treasures have you discovered at your library lately? 😊
❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊
❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚
