Paper Rockets - Flying Farther • Beyond the Chalkboard

Next stop, the moon!

Engineering activities give kids a chance to develop problem solving and observations skills, to work with interesting and engaging tools and materials, and to learn how to work as a member of a team. In this activity, children get a chance to do all that—and to launch their creations into the air!

Preparation

If you have not already done it, start with the Paper Rockets activity from this curriculum.

These rockets fly a long way, so this activity should be done outdoors or in a gymnasium or cafeteria. Keep the extra bicycle inner tube and 2-liter soda bottles on hand in case any part of the rocket launcher breaks. Set up a launch area outside or in a gymnasium or cafeteria. If you can, create a defined landing area with tape, chalk (if outside) or string. See Figure 1 in Resources below for two suggested layouts.

Resources

Figure 1

Suggested Materials

Copy paper (50 sheets)
3″ X 5″ index cards (50)
Invisible tape (10 rolls)
Homemade rocket launcher from the Paper Rockets activity
Extra bicycle tire inner tube (24″)
Extra pieces of PVC pipe (1″ Inner Diameter, about 1 5/16″ Outer Diameter, 12″–18″ long)
Extra empty, clean 2-liter soda bottles
Large paper clips, pennies or small washers (100-200)
Scissors (10)
Markers

Opening Discussion

Ask your students what they did last time you did the Paper Rockets activity. Did their rockets fly far and straight? Do they think they can make them fly even farther and straighter? What are some things they might change about their design to make that happen?

The Challenge

Design, build and launch a rocket that travels as far and as straight as possible.

Doing the Activity

Have students work in the same teams as they did in the Paper Rockets activity.
Remind teams of the challenge (far and straight) and review the materials they have to use.
Teams can make changes to the rockets that they made in the last session or they can build new rockets as they try different design elements. Encourage them to start from scratch if they have some new ideas to try.
Build the rockets! If you are doing this activity inside your afterschool classroom, there will be no test launching until you take them to the launch area. Teams will have to throw their rockets to judge how well they will travel. If you are doing the activity outside or in the indoor launching spot, students can bring their prototypes to you to perform test launches.

Let’s Talk About It

After 10–20 minutes, when teams have done some testing of their new designs, bring them all together to talk about what they have discovered. What have they changed about their rockets to help them fly? Have each team show their rocket to the other teams. Some things to look for (don’t tell teams about these tips – let them figure these things out themselves, or learn about them when other teams mention them):

Closed Nose – The top of the rocket (the nose or cone) needs to be closed so that no air leaks out.
Weight – The rockets fly much better if there is some weight (paper clips, pennies or washers) at the TOP of the rocket, but not too much weight. This is an important tip, so look for teams that have added no weight, some that have added weight to the sides or bottom of their rockets and some that have added weight to the top of their rockets. How do these rockets fly differently?
Fins – Getting these rockets to fly straight can be tricky. Look for teams that do have straight-flying rockets. What do their designs have in common? Look for teams that have added “fins” to the sides of their rockets. If no teams have thought of this, ask students to think about airplanes and how they fly through the air – what parts of the plane might help keep them flying straight?
Diameter of the Rocket – How the rocket fits onto the rocket launcher can have a big impact on how well the rocket flies. If it is too tight on the PVC, it might not leave the launch pad at all. If it is too loose, it might not fly either.
Angle – The angle at which the rocket is launched is one of the most important factors. A rocket that is launched straight up into the air will not travel very far (it will go a long way straight up, but the challenge is to create a rocket that travels a long distance as measured on the ground). Launching parallel to the ground will not travel very far either. Some angle in between is ideal—have kids experiment to discover which angle they think works best.

Look for these design elements and if you see any teams using a closed nose, weight, fins or a particular launch angle, point it out and ask them to describe how their rocket flew before they added the fins, weight, etc and how it did afterward.

Build On What They Talked About

After hearing from each team, send them back to complete the construction of their rockets. If any of the design elements mentioned above did not come up in the large group conversation, find ways to ask each team questions that will help lead them to discovering these ideas. If you would like, encourage teams to come up with a name for their rockets and to add designs to them with markers before the final launch.

When all teams have completed their rockets, bring them to the launch area and have a big “Blast-Off” where each team will talk about their design, the choices they made and then will launch their creations. Use a measuring tape or yardsticks to measure the distances traveled.

Suggestions

You can have students experiment with different kinds of paper and different kinds of tape—do construction paper rockets fly differently than plain white paper rockets? How about rockets that use invisible/scotch tape vs. rockets that are made with duct tape?
Try focusing teams on their aim rather than simply how far their rocket flies. Set up targets on the ground (maybe paper “planets” that are 2–3 feet across) and challenge teams to get as close as they can to the targets with their rockets. You could play a game similar to horseshoes, with the closest team receiving points.
NASA knows a lot about rockets, as you might imagine. Visit their many websites for a wealth of information, images, and more activities. Here are a couple of places to start:
- A NASA rocketry page for educators – http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/#.V8m3AE0rJhF
- Here is a fun online rocket-exploration game for kids – http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/RocketScience101/RocketScience101.html
- Share some of these NASA galleries of rocket images with your students, and search for your own – there are lots out there:
- And here is a video compilation of rocket launches:
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkZac30P5DM
- You can also search on NASA’s site for video of specific launches:
  - http://nasasearch.nasa.gov/search/news?affiliate=nasa&channel=704&query=rocket+launch

Earth and Space science activities were developed with the support of NASA. This material is based upon work supported by NASA under grant award number NNX14AQ83G. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Paper Rockets – Flying Farther