Gocio Elementary School students and teachers returned from a three-day weekend on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to discover a meteor had landed on campus and created a crater.
The Education Foundation of Sarasota County funded the “Great Impact” Meteor Landing, a weeklong schoolwide immersive grant designed to bring earth space science and geology to life for students.
The science-based inquiry project was designed and executed by University of South Florida science professors Mitch Ruzek and Dana Zeidler. For the Gocio immersion scenario, Ruzek and Zeidler responded as NASA scientists by quarantining the meteor with caution tape and processing the site, collecting scientific data and utilizing sterilizing techniques and outward observation procedures.
This immersive project allows for unique cross-curricular or interdisciplinary opportunities for all students and teachers. Professional development was provided to assist faculty and administrators with guiding students’ curiosity toward quantifiable inquiries, plausible hypotheses, observations, and inferences to help develop accurate scientific habits of mind.
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