Last week, my eighth-grade science classes launched rockets at Glasser Field as part of a unit on forces and Newton’s Laws of Motion.
The water rockets were made from plastic soda bottles. Students turned the bottles into rockets by adding fins and an aerodynamic nose to the bottle. To launch the rockets, we filled them about half full of water and pressurized the bottles with a bicycle pump. When released, they soared to heights of close to 100 meters.
All of our student scientists were encouraged to make changes to the rocket design in order to see which modifications worked the best. We will be analyzing that data soon.
While this activity was quite engaging, it also provided the students with an important hands-on experience that will help them better understand Newton’s Third Law: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”