Fourth graders had a blast this week learning about the four forces of flight and spaceships!
On Tuesday, Dr. Charles Gardner was our special guest; he taught a lesson on rocket science and facilitated an experiment during which student teams built rockets out of 2-liter bottles. We filled them partially with water and connected them to a tire inflator (increasing air pressure). We then observed each model's launch efficiency and theorized about the results.
Ready to see a launch?
We were also able to see that the enormous amount of air pressure vaporized some of the water particles!
Hopes and Dreams...
The winning team!
On Wednesday, we focused our experiment on controlling variables. We used Tuesday's winning model and changed the various amounts of water we put into the bottle. Our purpose was to discover the effect of the water on thrust and whether or not increasing the amount of water would help the rocket reach a higher altitude.
We completed three trials:
1. 2/3 full of water
2. 1/3 full of water
3. no water
