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Through a variety of audiovisuals, Lower School students document their class experiences.

msolberg@cotopaxi.k12.ec




Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rocket Launch:Connecting Math with Real-Life Learning (By A.J.)



  On January 23rd my dad came to school and did an experiment with all the class. It was a rocket that went really high, and it worked with a chemical reaction. It had vinegar (an acid) and baking soda (a base) and when they’re put together it made a gas, and that gas made the rocket go up. Our class knows this from other experiments: Eduardo did this reaction with a balloon, Natalie made a volcano, and Pablo did an underwater volcano.
Watching the launch was super exciting! We used two kinds of altitude trackers (one from NASA and the other was homemade) and these were used for measuring the angle that the rocket went up (we’re learning about right angles, right now). After that we used an altitude calculator to figure out how high the rocket went, and we found out that it went almost 9 meters high. That is the length of our classroom!
On the last launch it was funny because my Dad’s hand got sweaty, from being nervous, and it stuck on the top of the rocket. This made the rocket spin, so our launch failed; but, not really, because failures teach us how to do a better job the next time. See the videos below to learn more!


How to make this kind of rocket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3FlJZySyzM
Early US rocket failures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLn0_ABKvxY&feature=related

A Balloon Experiment (By E.B.)