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Deep Impact
Deep Impact
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Deep Impact Mission Science Technology Mission Results Gallery Education Discovery Zone Your Community Press Your Community - Pennies for Education

Download the "Make a Deep Impact" activity.
Grades 5-8
(MS Word Format, 54 KB)

Dee McLellan's class with penny collectionDee McLellan, one of our Solar System Educators, had a great idea for making a Deep Impact. Her class is gathering the number of pennies it will take to match the copper in our impactor projectile. "When we finally get enough pennies to "make weight," we will count up how much money the pennies make. We will then make a "deep impact" by sending this much money to our sister school in Ukraine to help them with their educational needs. When the 7th graders throw their pennies in the bucket they say, "I am making a deep impact!" They, of course, love the double meaning.

"We were weighing the pennies today to see how many we need to equal the weight of the copper mass on the impactor. We are about one fourth of the way to having enough pennies. It is exciting to see how the students get an idea of the size of the impactor from this experience. They are learning science, technology, math, and giving. How cool!"

How cool indeed, Dee. Thanks to your class for joining our growing community. We'll keep checking on your progress along the way.


Meadow Creek School - Update June 2004

The students at Meadow Creek have been working hard to get those pennies and they've finally reached their goal. The update comes from their teacher, Dee McLellan, this month.

Deep Impact helped us make a dramatic ending to our 7th grade studies in Earth Science and math class. The class was determined to collect enough pennies to get to the weight and size of the copper mass of the impactor. They collected about 300 lbs of pennies by the last day of school. This came to about $500 for their sister school in Buzhanka, Ukraine. The students were so enthusiastic about the project, some of them made copies of the Deep Impact web site page and their own flyers and went door-to-door collecting pennies. People they met gave them pennies and loose change. The kids went to the bank to get pennies for the change and the bank was running out. They were limiting them to only so many per stop.

That all changed when the kids turned the tables and hauled all 300 lbs of pennies in over 30 bags to the bank to be counted. It took 1hr and 10 minutes to run the pennies through the counting machine. All along the kids would do estimations on the weight, the number of pennies, the amount of money, etc. For example, the students who went to the bank timed the counting machine to see how long the first $100 took to be counted. Then they estimated how long it would take the machine to count the rest of the pennies. After this estimation, they pulled up chairs and started reading magazines for the rest of the count. They were so happy with the project that they asked if they could do it along with next year's Earth Science class in the fall. I suggested they be the mentors for the next class. They agreed, so in the fall they will all be assigned a "little buddy." Each student will oversee their little buddy by helping them with the math and teaching them about the mission. The class put up a special "Deep Impact" bulletin board already waiting for the new class to see this fall. We will all be anticipating the launch in December, too.

I (Mrs. McLellan) will be traveling with our Ukraine team from July 21 to August 4. I will visit our sister school and bring them information on the Deep Impact mission and school supplies for their school.

Thanks for the update, Dee. And thanks for making a Deep Impact with math and science. We can hardly wait to see how this class impacts the "little buddies" next year. Lots of pennies are great - lots of young men and women who love math and science and carry it forward is even better.


Meadow Creek School - Update September 2004

The team from Meadow Creek School in Andover, Minnesota had the opportunity to visit their sister school in Buzhanka, Ukraine this summer. They brought letters of greeting from the students of Meadow Creek and received letters from Buzhanka students to deliver at home.

This year the Meadow Creek team was able to bring a wonderful gift of money and some school supplies to help the Buzhanka School. The Schools in Ukraine are encouraged to find sponsors to help them in their science educational needs.

Meadow Creek's 7th grade Earth Science classes were able to "Make a Deep Impact" in Buzhanka by donating the sum of the pennies collected to match the copper deadmass on the Deep Impact mission's impactor.

Dee McLellan, a 7th grade teacher from Meadow Creek, presented a teacher workshop on science inquiry and the Deep Impact mission. The teachers were thrilled to receive the information. The principal asked to personally receive updates on the mission. The Buzhanka School is making a "Deep Impact" on our students as they share in correspondence and build relationships. The students of Meadow Creek are learning that we are living in a time of global relationships and we must work together to have stewardship of our planet.



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