seen in Dodge City, KS newspaper

seen in Doge City, KS newspaper
Beeson Elementary students learn about meteorites

By Ashley Nietfeld
Dodge City Daily Globe

Michael Schweitzer/Daily Globe Dr. Don Stimpson of Haviland shines a light through a piece of a meteorite to demonstrate that some meteorites can produce a stained glass effect when exposed to light. He showed the meteorite to students Friday morning at Beeson Elementary School.


(photo) Students at Beeson Elementary sat riveted as they listened to Dr. Don Stimpson talk about meteorites during school on Friday.

Stimpson, along with Paul Ross, discovered one of the largest meteorites in the United States on Ross' land in Kiowa County this summer. He spent all day giving presentations to each of the classes.
The meteorite, which students learned is a piece of an asteroid that has broken off and fallen to the Earth, consists of five main segments ranging in weight from 150 to 520 pounds. The meteorite is part of the Brenham meteorites that landed on Earth about 20,000 years ago.


Michael Schweitzer/Daily Globe Students at Beeson Elementary School were able to get a hands-on feel of a 300- pound meteorite that was found near Haviland.


When Stimpson told students the combined weight of the segments was 1,500 pounds, gasps of "whoa" could be heard around the room. Stimpson, equally excited, said, "Yeah, it was pretty amazing."
Brenham is a stony-iron meteorite. Stimpson explained there are three types of meteoroids – the term for a meteorite while it's still in space – stony, stony-iron and iron.
Stimpson brought samples of the different meteorites, including one that weighed 300 pounds and had to be pulled in on a wagon.