Meteorite sparks chaos at Australian school as hazmat team arrives. It turned out to be...

Students at a Sydney junior school were left stunned when they saw a meteorite had crash-landed on their premises. St Pius X College was the stage for an extra-terrestrial visitor last Monday. Men in hazmat suits surrounded the space debris and checked it for radiation as students watched in awe, standing behind a yellow tape. The school wrote about the extraterrestrial visitor on its website, "It’s not every day students arrive at school to find space debris waiting for them, and the discovery quickly became the talk of the college." While the black rock sent shockwaves across the school, it wasn't what they thought it was. It was a ploy employed by the school authorities to kickstart National Science Week and give the students something exciting to send their minds racing. It made it all so real that the students only came to know what the school had done when they were later told that it was just a replica.

Despite it not being a real meteorite, the school said the students were genuinely excited and amazed. Experts from GeoScience Australia and a Willoughby Fire and Rescue crew were there to answer their questions about the meteorite. "The event sparked imaginative and factual writing, as well as Mathematics lessons exploring size, weight, and even possible trajectories through space," the school wrote. It said all the excitement around the meteorite replica is a "reminder that sometimes the best learning comes from a little bit of mystery."

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Parents applauded the school for the effort during National Science Week

The school's tactic worked, as St Pius X College said that the meteorite quickly became the "talk of the college". The experts fielded "plenty of curious questions" from the students. The innovative method to pique curiosity in students also earned the praise of parents. Talking about the fake meteorite, the parents wrote on social media how it had managed to generate interest in the kids about an outer space visitor. National Science Week has been celebrated every year in Australia since 1997. More than 2,000 events are organised nationwide to spark interest towards science among students and others.