Our year 9 learners were challenged to design and build a water rocket using recycled drinks bottles. This employer led project brought many key topics on the science curriculum to life, such as the centre of gravity, the centre of pressure, Newton’s third law and thrust, drag and weight. Learners had to follow these key science principles in order to successfully launch their rockets.
| Learners were set the following brief: - You will design a “Water Rocket” using a recycled drinks bottle. - In groups, you will create the rocket ensuring that you have followed aerodynamic principles/ principles taught in the topic of forces. - You will launch your rockets once made. - You will create D-T and V-T graphs for your rockets. |
Before beginning the project, learners also enjoyed a masterclass from LDE’s head of Aviation Simon, who covered a range of topics about the aviation industry including how to get into pilot training, with specific references to his vocational background, and what he enjoys most about his job. Simon also explained how science plays an integral role in his work and offered the learners helpful tips for building their own rockets.
This masterclass helped our learners not only explore key concepts such as propulsion, aerodynamics and the forces that affect rockets and airplanes (lift, weight, drag, and thrust), but also gain insight into the fascinating career of a pilot.
Thanks to this Project, learners had the opportunity to work together in teams using concepts from the science curriculum to reach an exciting end goal.
'The learners produced some really impressive rockets; one even flew as far as 18 metres which is our record so far! The learners were invested in creating distance-time graphs which was very relevant to the Science course. They used their understanding of forces to build amazing rockets.' Mohamed, science teacher.
