What is a dwarf planet?
What is a light year?
What is a shooting star?
Is there another planet where we could live?
These are just some of the questions asked by the Grade 6 class during a fascinating astronomy lesson by Professor Jaymie Matthews of UBC.
One of our students, Leah J. invited astronomer Jaymie Matthews to visit the Grade 6 class.
It’s a neat story. She and her dad met Mr. Matthews when they were out at a restaurant over the winter break (Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe oddly enough!). They ended up in 2 hour conversation and Leah was apparently very engaged in the conversation. She asked him to visit her school and he said ‘yes’ and he gave her his business card. January arrives and she asks Ms. Ling to arrange the visit.
In his presentation, Mr. Matthews, who also acts as an advisor on the TV show The Fringe, used several metaphors to illustrate his point, including square dancing! He made his discussion of the planets, the sun and the stars extremely accessible to this age group, as well as to a few select adults that were in attendance. What a special treat to have the principal investigator of the new Canadian space exploration satellite (MOST project) in one of our classrooms.