• DVD: 1hr 20min
• RockSim Demo
• RockSim Powerpoint Presentation

This DVD was videotaped at a graduate course I presented for the Space Foundation as part of their summer institute course “Rocketry and the Biology of Living in Space, Space History, and Space Law.”

http://www.creative.co.nz/~lyle/course2.htm Here you'll find a sample course outline to Bring the Concepts in Science and Mathematics to Life Through the Experience of Building and Launching a Model Rocket

Rocketry for Educators by Vincent Oraze

http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ph9002.html Lesson plan for calculating the height of a rocket  (elementary level).

http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ph9510.html Lesson plan for making a home-made rocket out of readily available parts (elementary level)

http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/programs/g-scouts/space1.html Basic launch tips for use with large groups. This one comes from a girl scout troop.

http://www.proteacher.com/110068.shtml Rocket, aeronautics and aviation lesson plans for elementary school teachers including experiments involving aerodynamics, how model rockets fly, thematic units, information about space craft, models, and rocketry for elementary school teachers in grades K-6. This is very simple stuff. But a good foundation on rocketry.

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/teachers/rockets/index.html - A Teacher's Guide to Rocketry from NASA.

http://agnews.tamu.edu/4Haero/blue.html Rocketry curriculum from 4H

http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/math.html Sample math problems based on space missions.

The links below are known to be dead. They did contain some great and useful information. Fortunately, they can still be accessed in a web archive. The text will be present, but the graphic images may be lost.

To use the WayBack Machine, you may need to cut and past the URL into the web site http://www.archive.org. If you find any other dead links, don't give up. Try using the Wayback Machine!

http://www.technologyconceptsusa.com/science%26tech.htm - Lift-off by Steve Bachmeyer. Great curriculum book written for high school students, but can be also used at the elementary level.

http://hometown.aol.com/peterlynnc/topicsmr.html Excellent collection of teaching ideas that revolve around rocketry and space. Indexed by different course studies.

http://td.ele.madison.tec.wi.us/~metal/rocket.htm Rocket Fin Design Activity - Each team will produce fin sets of various sizes and thicknesses using the same shape and material. The teams will then produce rockets with these fins and test each for performance. You might want to check out our Optimum Fin Shape article too.

http://www2.wi.net/~fizzx/physics/rockets.html Students built model rockets, calculated their maximum height and finally launched the rocket to find how high it really would go.  With a low powered engines we were able to see results within 15% of our predicted height.

http://apolloeighteen.com/education/lessons/lesson4.htm#Web%20sites Lesson plans for space k-12. Not many of the plans use model rocketry, but it is worth taking a look.

http://www.pitsco.com/p/CCrockets.htm Pitsco suggests using a model rocket altitude contest to motivate students to learn. The rules are pretty simple, and can be easily modified to use parts from Apogee Components.

http://library.thinkquest.org/50109/projects/mrockets.html - building and flying a model rocket in a classroom.

Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets
Subject: Re: Help on Rocket Curriculum

Gregg Lind writes:

I am interested in any PowerPoint slides and presentation material on model rocketry. I am planning to have a 2-3 week class, that builds the rocket and launches them. I am also interested in teaching the kids how to judge or measure the height achieved by the rockets. The grade of the kids is 6th grade science class.

From: Eric Gunnerson
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000

I've done a few shorter (4-5 day) classes, 1 1/2 hour/day with 6-12 grade. I don't have any slide suggestions, but I do have some class suggestions.

I usually start by having them build a easy to build (estes level 1) rocket, with the gnome and x-ray being my usual choices. Then, we do a day of launch for that, and then go onto another rocket. If I only have 4 days, I'd go with an assortment of kits; if I have longer, letting them do custom designs is more fun, and a bit more educational. This January I did a class where all the kids did a custom design, which I then simmed on RockSim to make sure they were stable. They had a lot more fun on those than we did the previous years with kits.

For launch, you're going to want to have two pads. I usually split the class into two groups; one to launch, and one to retrieve. It will help things immensely if you prep the engines for them, so you can just hand out an engine with an ignitor already in it. If you don't do this, it will take lots more time, and you'll see around a 40% failure rate on launches.

One year we used the Estes Altitrac to measure the height, which will work well if you have a big enough field. If the field is small, sport flyers on C engines will go high enough to give you pretty big error.

You might also consider trying to do speed measurements; the easiest way would be with a videotape recorder that does single-frame playback, and a known scale behind the pad(s).

Yes the order arrived in good condition as always, Your service is the best that I have had from anyone even though the order was placed during your move (congratulations). I will probably be placing another order in the next few weeks. Keep up the good work -- Dennis R. Petersen