This is an exceptional book, especially for students in 5th-8th grade who are interested in space and celestial objects. This book provides numerous examples and illustrations of how scientists use geographic and geologic evidence, such as clues from craters impacts on the Earth’s surface, and the steps and procedures taken to determine if a collected sample is a rock, or in fact a meteorite and what kind of meteorite. There are also fantastic descriptions and illustrations showing how craters are formed and the force required to create the crater. I also thought it was great to show scientists in the field and the gear, journal entries, measurements, and observations taken at the site of a meteorite impact.
This book also allows students to make connections with prior knowledge and learn through inquiry. Students are able to make prior connections about dinosaurs and relate it to evidence that shows why or why not the dinosaur’s extinction may have been caused by a giant meteorite. This book also integrates other aspects of science, such as observing patterns of meteorite impacts around the world, making inferences, and shows how infrared technology is being used help astronomers identify and track asteroids. To conclude the book, inquiry and STEM strategies are introduced to ask the students the question of “what would we do if there was a huge meteorite that was headed towards Earth?” It allows student to think of criteria and constraints of how this problem would be confronted; some examples include bomb it, crash into it, push it, shoot it, vaporize it, etc.
This book keeps its readers engaged from start to finish with interesting facts, amazing illustrations and models, and content properly targeted to adolescent students to keep them engaged.
Review by Jason