Rocketober 4 - Rocketry Education Photos

All this month I'm posting photos on Twitter for #Rocketober. They'll appear here with slightly expanded text.

"Day 4: TARC or educational rocketry photo"

Yesterday's #Rocketober theme was educational rocketry photos. Since I've taught Rocket Camp two years running, I have a lot of these. (For those waiting, I know I haven't finished the Rocket Camp blog series yet. It will happen.)

Painting the Apogee Avion. This booth was really helpful. It kept harmful paint fumes away from the kids, and sucked up overspray. Also, we didn't have to worry about getting bugs stuck on the paint.

This is what Go Fever looks like.

Whoosh!

A couple of my students from last summer returned this year. Here, one of my returning students launches her Apogee Avion. These were great rockets.

We tracked the altitude with an Estes Altitrak. This is the baseline we used. It moved a little as kids walked across it. That's fine - it was just an exercise.

An experiment - comparing the findings of an Estes Altitrak tracker with a barometric altimeter on board the rocket. The Estes Reflector lifts off, carrying the Jolly Logic Altimeter 2.

Checking the altimeter readings to compare with the Altitrak.

I wish I had video of this launch. This kid's reaction was amazing. "It worked! It worked!" he yelled. "My rocket really worked!"

Painted and ready...

From last year - putting the Crossfire ISX on the launch pad.

Using the Altitrak to find the elevation angle for calculating altitude.

Hooking up alligator clips on the Baby Bertha. This was the best built rocket all season, and had a great flight.

I felt it was important to show the kids how to set up for launch and have them do it themselves, rather than have me do it for them. They folded parachutes, put in wadding, installed igniters and igniter plugs, and they hooked up the launch controller clips - which can be fiddly work, but must be done.

The intrepid Claire launches her Hi Flier.

After her flight, Claire carefully notes the elevation angle from the Altitrak station. She took altitude notes all launch day.

Showing off Trident - a 3-motor cluster rocket. The kids really liked this one.

I also did some building yesterday, but that was a ton of tweets in a short time, so I stopped there.

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