The cost of two two-rocket starter sets, two rocket class sets, and three types of rocket engines is $628, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
I am currently teaching high school mathematics at Leadership Public Charter school in San Francisco. Our school uses the problem based Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP) curriculum. During the third year of the curriculum, students work on a unit titled "Fireworks". The "Fireworks" unit presents a situation where the students study a problem that has ficticious high school students shooting off fireworks to celebrate their own school. The pattern that the fireworks follow is best described as a parabola, which is modeled by a quadratic equation. Students study quadratic equations for the entire unit and are eventually able to predict the best place to stand to view the fireworks, how long until the fireworks hit the ground, and exactly how high the fireworks will reach.
My proposal is to purchase model rocket kits, so students can build the rockets and ultimately fire them off. We will also make predictions about exactly how high the model rockets will go and attempt to predict where they will land. The students will use all of the mathematics that they have learned in the "Fireworks" unit to make real world predictions about their own model rockets. In this manner the students will get to use the mathematics that they know, and I will also finally be able to honestly answer their question of, "When are we ever going to use this math in the real world?".
There will be approximately 90 students participating in this activity. It will be best to have students pair off, thus we need 45 model rockets. Rockets can be purchased in kits which include all that is necessary for launching: launch pad, engines, wading and battery operated ignition.
High school students frequently question the relevance of learning mathematics most often citing that it has no real world applications. By getting a chance to actually implement the mathematics that they have learned, this project will provide the students with an excellent experience that will hopefully help to get them reinvigorated toward mathematics.
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