Materials
Straws (at least 2 per student)
Pencils (one per student, sharpened)
Transparent tape
Scissors
Paper (any kind, different types)
Tape Measures (I prefer seamstress tape)
Students work in pairs to design, build, and "fly" straw rockets. Begining with a strip of paper that is about 11 in. x 1.5 in., students wrap this paper around a pencil, overlapping it as they go. Once they have wrapped the entire strip of paper, students can then tape it at the ends and again in the middle (this is where having a partner comes in handy) and being sure not to tape it to the pencil. Students then slide the "tube" off of the pencil and this creates the body of the rocket.
Once students have completed their rocket bodies, additional paper can be should be used to design fins for it. Teachers can opt to pre-cut the paper for younger students or give each student a full piece of paper and make that part of the challenge. When this is complete, students can fold over the top and tape it shut.
To launch their complete rockets, students slide their rocket onto a straw to launch it. (I like to have lots of extra straws on hand in case student forget which straw is theirs, drop it on the ground, etc.) Students launch their rocket and record the data. (As a side note, you might not thin these would go very far, but they do. Average rockets will travel about 6 feet.)
I like this activity because it is so versatile. Students can experiment with the diameter of the body, length of the body, weight (paper type) of the rocket, size and number of fins, and the list goes on.
So, what did we learn?
Next Generation Science Standards: SEP- Asking Questions and Defining Problems, , , Analyzing and Interpreting Data, ; CCC- Scale, Proportion and Quantity, System and System Models
CCSS Math: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Measurement and Data,Number and Operations
