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We begin with a brief description of the formation of the planets and asteroids before discussing the history of the true origins of meteorites. Examples of the three major meteorite types (iron, stony iron and stone) are shown to the students beginning with an 11kg iron meteorite from Argentina with an uncanny resemblance to a map of Australia and concluding with genuine fragments from the Moon and the planet Mars. Descriptions of the various impact mechanisms are illustrated with examples of all types of impact materials (glasses, tektites and shatter cones). A description of the scale of energies involved in an impact is illustrated by briefly describing Meteor Crater in Arizona. In conclusion we discuss the impact that is believed to have extinguished the dinosaurs, some of the evidence supporting this conclusion and several examples of dinosaur teeth and bones.
While presenting our "meteorite" or "space" oriented incursions, we try to have the students imagine the scale of an impact by relating to other familiar scales, eg. "an aircraft flying overhead would just make it over the top of the meteorite believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs", "if you were standing on one side of the crater made by this impact, the other side would be past Bendigo", "the energy released by the impact was enough to boil all the water in Port Phillip Bay 50,000 times over". The expressions on the faces of students, especially the younger ones, are amazing! We also have a number of scale models of planets and moons that help students to appreciate the sizes involved and be able to compare astronomical subjects with more familiar object, eg. "the Moon is approximately the same size as Australia", "if the Earth is as large as this globe, the plantet Jupiter would be as large as this room". | 
