Beginning Monday, September 13th, students will begin a 3 part (in class) project involving 2 liter Water Rockets. This will be a great way to kick off our science year and get the students doing something real and hands-on. The goal is to allow each student to go through the design process of planning, designing, building a model, testing the model, then reflecting on and changing their model to represent what they have learned.
Part 1: Identify background knowledge and build a rocket prototype to be launched. The basics will be provided in terms of materials and design. Students are asked to bring in one 2-liter bottle to contribute to their rocket. 2 bottles are needed to make one rocket.
Part 2: Reflect on the original design and fix any failures that resulted in the original plan. Students will be introduced to research about the concepts that relate the their rocket, courtesy of NASA. Students will use their research to modify their rocket to better align with the related scientific principals learned. We are aiming to launch the rockets 3 - 4 separate times to allow students to identify the effects of their changes (to the rocket) in hopes of bettering their rocket's flight. A competition will arise after the first launch!!
Part 3: Communicating the successes and failures of the project to the class. Each team will present the results of their rockets performance, trials, faults, etc, along with an explanation of the science concepts that are involved with rocket flight. A template and rubric will be provided. Student Teams will present to the class using presentation software of their choice; Keynote, Google Slides, or Prezi.
Part 1: Identify background knowledge and build a rocket prototype to be launched. The basics will be provided in terms of materials and design. Students are asked to bring in one 2-liter bottle to contribute to their rocket. 2 bottles are needed to make one rocket.
Part 2: Reflect on the original design and fix any failures that resulted in the original plan. Students will be introduced to research about the concepts that relate the their rocket, courtesy of NASA. Students will use their research to modify their rocket to better align with the related scientific principals learned. We are aiming to launch the rockets 3 - 4 separate times to allow students to identify the effects of their changes (to the rocket) in hopes of bettering their rocket's flight. A competition will arise after the first launch!!
Part 3: Communicating the successes and failures of the project to the class. Each team will present the results of their rockets performance, trials, faults, etc, along with an explanation of the science concepts that are involved with rocket flight. A template and rubric will be provided. Student Teams will present to the class using presentation software of their choice; Keynote, Google Slides, or Prezi.