Rockets Launched as Part of STEM Curriculum

During Term 1 of STEM in High School, the Year 9s were given the opportunity to make rockets that would later be launched as part of their curriculum. 

"Before being able to launch it, the class needed to complete a range of safety precautions and folios that were needed to be completed as part of the learning," said Mr James Coles, High School STEM teacher. 

"This all led to the design of the rocket and the construction of it."

In groups, the students downloaded the files and had to 3D-print the parts needed (fins, nose cone and pocketlab holder) to create a rocket that could hopefully fly successfully.

In Week 1 of Term 2, the students were able to test their rockets to see whose would fly the furthest.  The rocket launching exercise led to some successes, while others had some extremely funny 'fails'. 

For some groups the rockets exceeded expectations and went really far, some broke on impact, and some didn’t fly at all, which made the students rethink their designs and engineering skills for future lessons. It was a great experience and the Year 9s had a lot of fun participating in this STEM class.