Mrs. Bower's Class Launches Rockets
Even a Spring snowstorm couldn’t stop Mrs. Bower’s class from launching their paper rockets. Each of the students had their turn at the launcher (an air-powered PVC rocket launcher) and the results were amazing. As part of their homework, the students were asked to share their experience as a comment to this blog post. Read the responses below.
Today we launched rockets. My rocket as alright, I guess. My rocket was yellow with a orange nose. It also had three fins. It was pretty simple. My rocket did alright. It went into a field, (like most did,) and past the soccer net that is at the beginning of the field. Mine probably went there because my rocket was a little heavy, ( it had a lot of tape on it.) To improve the rocket, I might have left the fins off because one of my best friends didn’t have fins and went further. I also might have put less tape on it. Although, everyone did great if they didn’t think so!
Thanks for coming and helping us, Mr. Spangler!
My rocket did well on my launch. It went kind of far but not far enough to be in the top 3. My rocket was called Dave 21 and had some stickers on it.If I had taken off a couple stickers it might have gone farther.
I wanted fins on my rocket because if it were to be too light it would have been taken by the wind. My rocket was doing well at the beginning because I was one of the 1st students to go.
The rocket experiment was really cool. Thank Mr. Spangler
I loved launching rockets today. Thank you very much for teaching us how to build the awesome rockets! My rocket went very far(almost to the fence!). I think it went so far because I had equally spaced out fins. I noticed that the rockets that didn’t do so well didn’t have fins at all or the fins were not equally spaced out. I think that is because fins add air dynamics so the rockets that didn’t have fins or were not equally spaced out went out of control. I also think I did so well is because I had a great “top of rocket”. Many kids didn’t have a pointy tip, which all of the “final” people did. This is probably because wind is pushing against the flatter tips which slows the rocket down. I had a smooth tip so the wind went to the sides of the “top of rocket” or capsule. I wonder why some rockets “blew up”? I think that the clay at the top of the rockets couldn’t hold on to the base of it and it blew right out of the rocket,ripping the tip. I also wonder how the kids that were better better than me did differently to their rockets? Probably because I put a lot of weight on my rocket for the decoration. Overall, I had a “bast” today launching rockets. “Rock on”!
Today we blasted off our rockets. It was so cool watching as the other kids launched there rockets and how well they did.Some did really good and went really far. Not every rocket flew well. But it is so cool to see how they worked and some didn’t work and why.
My rocket did pretty well and I really did not do any thing to it. It got pretty far, close to the soccer goal . It was really sturdy because it was taped very well. If I put on wings it would go even farther but I didn’t do that. I wish we could do that again.
My rocket didn’t do so well on the launch. It didn’t get to the field It was yellow with a pink top and three fins. I also wrapped it in tin foil. It might have failed because it was too heavy but I think it was because of the top. When my rocket launched the top blew off. I noticed when I picked it up that one side wasn’t taped. Also the top wasn’tvery tight to the body. The wining rockets had the tops on very tight and didn’t have any decoration. Still, even though my rocket blew up, I had fun and hope everyone else did too. Thanks Mr.Spangler!
Hello!I go to wilder and I launched my rocket today! Mine was good but not good enough to get in the top three. I wish it could of though.My rocket is yellow Light sky blue and also it was tan colored.It has three fins a very pointy nosel(top).Mine probably could have done better with out any fins or changing the angle of the launching pad .I think that because that my BFF shot her rocket really far without any fins. All in all I thought today was very very very fun.Thank you so much Steve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Mr. Spangler
My rocket I made had a long sharp nose on it, and three fins at the bottom of it. I think my rocket did pretty good and went far. I think it did so well because of the tape I used was light and maybe the nose I had, and the shape of my fins. I think my rocket could’ve improved by how the wind hits my rocket, and how it soars though the sky. Thanks for everything you have doen, this was an awesome project!
Today was so fun. We launched rockets. Mine went pretty far, for all the tape I used. Some of the kids rockets didn’t go any where. I think it was because they did not tape down any of the nose to the rocket.
My rocket was yellow and was named Noodle. I used much of duck tape on it but it still went pretty Far. I got about 10th out of 52 people. The top 3 people from our was Peyton, Nick, and David. The Final top 3 were nick in 3rd,Kate in 2d, and Claire in first place.
I learned much from Steve Spangler, he taught us the Newton Laws, which were really interesting. I learned how air can have so much power.
Thank you for teaching us that stuff, and using your time to come spend with us.
Dear Mr. Spangler,
My rocket did well, it was not in the top 3,but that’s OK. My rocket had 3 fins on the bottom. It also had 4 streamers on the bottom. Three of the four streamers blew up in the launch. To decorate the body of my rocket, I used tissue paper. Like I said, my rocket did well – it just did not do as well as some. I think that I had the wrong angle, that is why it did not go as far. I think that some were too heavy, that is why they blew up at launch. Thank you for coming in and teaching us about rockets. I feel like I learned a lot and had fun too!!!!!!!
Hi, Steve! My rocket looked like one of the original rocket, before the space shuttle (like the Saturn V). My rocket’s name was “Blaze V”! I was really excited because my rocket went really far. I think it did well because it had four fins instead of three and I made sure they were attached well. I came in the top 3 for the entire fourth grade. Thanks so much for my prize. I can’t wait to play with my stomp rockets this weekend and then blast off the mentos in some diet soda! Thanks so much for coming. YOU ROCK!!
I launched my rocket but it didn’t do so well. It was yellow with a rainbow ribbon wrapped around it.It also had 4 fins on it. My rocket only made it a bit past the blacktop. I think that my rocket was too heavy because of how much tape I had on it. The rockets that flew the farthest had only fins and not much detail. Even when I saw my rocket didn’t go very far it was amazing to see others. Thank you Mr. Spangler!
Hey kids! I am really proud of all of you and your hard work these past few days. From watching the movie, October Sky, to our final launch today, each one of you never stopped the wheels spinning in your minds on how you can be like “Homer Hickam.” Keep your dreams big; especially after today, I am convinced that you will achieve them. I truly enjoyed watching and wondering with you as each launch was made. I made my own predictions, and as always, you out-shined them! Thanks for making me proud!
Dear Mr.Spangler,
I really, really enjoyed when you came.I loved whenyou shot the potatos through that tube.I also loved the film canister rockets, they were awesome!!! My rocket was pretty good, I think if I would of Launched it from a better angle mine would of been in the top three. I still had alot of fun!!!! My absolute favorit part was when Mr.Hall launched the real rocket!!!!!! It was AWESOME!!! I hope we have another experience like this soon.
My rockt was yellow with a purple nose & a yellowish gray tail fins. On the first try I had a paricute wich made my rocket a dud. Thakfuly Mr.Spangler let me do a retry,which I took the parichute off and my rocket went alot farther and I mean a LOT farther. I was glad mine got to really FLY!!!
matthew Says:
April 17th, 2008 at
Dear.Mr Spangler,
Today was awesome!At about 11:12 we went out to launch our rockets,it lasted till about 12:20. When it was my turn to go up and launch my rocket I was feeling a little scared. Then it blasted off. When it was about 30 feet away from the launch pad the nose cone flew off when this happened I was pretty scared but it did fine. I think I could have prevented this from happening by attaching the nose cone on the outside instead of attaching it on the inside. I thought that my rocket was very aerodymamic. As I was watching other rockets and examining the other rockets I discovered that the rockets with no fins went farther than the ones with fins. I think that this happpened because when you are launching the rockets for distance you do not need it to be stable you just need it to be light with when you have no fins it helps. Now when you need it for hight it is the opposite. I think that my design would have worked better if i would of not had the fins,had a better material,and i could of made the fins shorter. I also could have improved it by following Newtons Laws better.
dear mr. spangler
I learned a ton about space over the past couple of days. I’m here to tell everybody about my rocket. My rocket was covered in tin foil it had an oarnge nose and it’s name was etak. My rocket didn’t do very well it exploded. Even though it exploded I had a blast (0:Thanks for teaching us Newton’s laws it was very interesting. I can’t bewlieve science could be so fun. Thanks for teaching us about space.
Dear Mr. Spangler:
My rocket went pretty far. I think it did this because the fins I designed looked like half of a heart. I think my rocket could have performed better had I made the cone tip tighter. Also, thank you for teaching us about Newtons Laws. I also thought it could have done better had I angled the rocket better. Thank you for the great time. Aerodynamics rock!!:) :o) :.)
Kaylie,
It seemed like you had soooooooo much fun decorating your rocket. I hope I have as good of time lunching rockets as you did.
I liked Luke’s comment because he exclaimed what he did well on his rocket and all of the areas that it needed to improve. I thought that was good writing because you lear more from your mistakes than from the times when you succeed.
Kaylie,
I am a student at Willow Creek Elementary. My teacher, Mrs. Heaton and Steve used to teach together at Willow Creek and are good friends. Every year, during her October Sky unit, Mrs. Heaton’s fifth graders read the book and Steve helps them build rockets. We have not seen Steve yet, but he will be coming this month. It sounds like you had a lot of fun building your rocket. It sounds like it did pretty well. I can’t wait for Steve to come to our school.
Willow Creek students, thanks for replying to our blogs. We want to wish you all luck on your launches. We will try to blog to you some great tips. Let us know how well they work for you.
Happy Blogging! :0)
dear kids at willow creek. I’m here to tell you some tips about launching. First don’t put laot’s of weight on your rocket. Second make sure your nose cone is on tight. Finally if your going to have fins have three not four.
Mrs. Bower is a great photographer. Check out some of her pictures in the newspaper.
http://denver.yourhub.com/Littleton/Stories/News/General-News/Story~459140.aspx
Willow Creek students,
I am so glad you are looking forward to doing your rockets! It is so much fun! Tips: don’t make yours too heavy – if it is too heavy, try to aim yours a little higher up. Good luck everyone, but a special good luck to Mr. Kingfish from Aces. Good luck and have fun!
Dear Mrs. Bower’s class,
Thank you for the tips that you gave us. I think they will help me out. We would love it if you would come to our blog sight and read our work. Our sight is lisaheaton.com .
Thank you for giving us advice about how and how not to build our rockets. I’m sure the tips will be useful when we build our rockets with Steve on Wednesday. It has been a lot of fun blogging on your site. Try to come to ours at www. lisaheaton.com
Kaylie,
Thanks for the tips, we are doing our launch tomorrow. Mine might be heavy so I will aim it high and hope for the best. I will tell my best friend “Mr. Kingfish” good luck for you! 🙂
Hello, thank you for the feedback your class gave us! It was very informative and helpful. I will surely take all of your tips into consideration when we build our rockets. We’re building rockets tomorrow (Wednesday) and we’re all very excited! You can also blog on our site, http://www.lisaheaton,com. Bye!
Marc- I noticed how you said ‘My rocket did pretty good’ It should be ‘My rocket did pretty well’
You guys must have had a lot of fun. We’re really looking forward to launching our rockets. Also, go to http://www.lisaheaton.com and check out our blogging. Finally, don’t get rid of your rocket, you could re-launch it by yourself.
Dear Mrs. Bower’s Class,
I so glad we are having fun blogging together! You guys should come blog on our site! http://www.lisaheaton.com
I hope to see you guys soon there!
Krystalized
p.s. I love how you gave some tips on the rockets! Thanks!
p.s.s Who is Mr. Kingfish fro Aces? Kaylie B.?
Mrs. Bower’s Class,
It looks like you guys are having fun interacting with us. Thank you for the tips; we will be building our rockets tomorrow, and launching them on Thursday. It is supposed to be raining on that day! I hope the weather turns around! Check out our blog: http://www.lisaheaton.com!
Hi kids in Mrs Bowers class, thank you very much for the tips that you gave us about the rockets. I am really looking forward to launching mine. The tip to put three fins on the rocket not four was very clever because I think it was very creative for some of you to even try putting four fins on your rocket. It has been very fun blogging on your website so try to blog on ours at http://www.lisaheaton.com.
Matthew, I thought that you explained the launch very well. You did a good job observing how the rockets flew and if they flew well of if they exploded. I am sorry your rocket’s nose flew off. Hopefully My rocket does good. Wish me luck!
Dear Kaylie,
Thanks for responding to our comments. Try to check out our site @ http://www.lisaheaton.com. We’re reading the book, and we’re almost finished. We also plan to watch the movie on October Sky. Thanks again ; )
Hi I’m Hermiowne Granger!
Thank for responding to out blogs. I think that it’s really cool how we get to respond to each other’s blog entries. If you want to blog on our site the web address is http://www.lisaheaton.com!
Thanks!
Hermiowne Granger (hur-mee-own grr-aa-nn-jer)
Today we made our rockets and are launching them tomorrow! We also made these bottle rockets. First, we drank Kool-Aid and saved the bottles. Then, we took a straw and attached it to the bottle with modeling clay then we blocked the other side and let Newton’s laws do the rest.