On Thursday, tenth grade students had a “blast” – or “blast offs,” so to speak, as they test-launched water rockets as part of their Engineering Principles class. The launch was witnessed by excited third and fourth grade students who were at the upper campus and had a few minutes to watch in between their own enrichment classes.
Guided by teacher John Welch, sophomore students are learning about aerodynamics, pressure and the engineering design process. As part of their study, they used recycled plastic water bottles and other assorted materials to design and build water rockets.
“This was our first project of the year,” said Welch, “students had fun and got to test the concepts they’ve studied. You can only learn so much from research and thinking, then you have to try it out – see what works, what doesn’t work and what can be improved.”