Sanlyn Buxner and Larry Lebofsky, along with students from the University of Arizona, participated in the Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona Mall. Special thanks to Grant Bowman, Kush Aggarwal, Annie Moore, Rachel Lindley, Brianna Billingsley, Stephanie Cortes Retrum and the entire Buxner family for helping.
There were hundreds of visitors to PSI’s display each day. Our activities included a hands-on display of meteorites and “meteorwrongs” where participants used magnets to determine if samples were meteorites. We also had a place for kids to make bracelets with pony beads and UV beads that change color in sunlight.
In addition to the gifts that the kids got by making the bracelets, we also had Meteorite Cards that we gave out only to those (especially kids) who showed an interest in the meteorites and would appreciate a “rock from space.” The text was provided to us by Brother Bob Macke of the Vatican Observatory and included a small (several gram) ordinary chondrite meteorite donated by Larry Lebofsky. In total, we gave out 125 of these.
In addition, the students from the University of Arizona were given a meteorite kit as a token of our appreciation for their hard work. We could not have had a successful exhibit without them.
Sanlyn Buxner presents a chondrite meteorite sample to an enthused Tucson Festival of Books attendee.
