My students need 36 Viking rockets along with 48, B6-4 rocket engines. I have 12 left over rockets from previous years. My students also need 2 rocket launchers.
Dream big and reach for the sky! What a great motto for our students in the midst of a very bleak financial outlook for our school district. My students have been able to participate in learning about rocketry, creating rockets, and watching them launch for the past 5 years. This year we have undergone severe budget cuts to our budgets in our classrooms, to staff, and to programs. The future of our districts financial outlook looks very grim. I have been so grateful to be able to use Donors Choose to fund this project in past years and am again, asking you for your help in keeping this great project alive for the kids!
Please consider supporting our students and helping to provide them with the same opportunities that previous classes have received from the gracious donors at Donors Choose.
My class this year consists of approximately 150, 7th grade students. We live in a rural area with a very large physical area of many small communities. Some of our students can spend over an hour on the bus both to and from school. My students this year have been looking forward to this project as they have watched previous classes partake in this experience. It is a great way to end our school year on a high note as I am so proud of the hard work that they have continued to exhibit all year long.
My Project
This project allows my students to "Dream Big"! We begin the project by viewing the movie "October Sky" which is about a young man, Homer Hickman, whose interest in rocketry is sparked after the launch of Sputnik. With the continued support of his teacher he designs a rocket for a school science fair and ends up going to the national level. His success leads him to have many journeys in his lifetime including working for NASA and helping in spacecraft design and crew training. After watching this inspiring movie, the students will learn about rocketry and the importance of rocketry in the history of the United States. They will then use the donated items from Donors Choose to create model rockets. As a 7th grade class on a bright sunny day in May, we will launch our rockets! The best part of this project is seeing the awe in their eyes as they watch their rockets fly almost 1,000 feet in the air!
This project has become a part of our school's history and is a great activity that ties perfectly into our 7th grade science curriculum and our astronomy unit.
The students learn to be creative, to infer, to use scientific tools, and to work together in groups to create a rocket that will fly! The students learn to "Dream Big" and the activity itself instills a sense of excitement in regards to science and its use in our world. I can not think of a better way to create scientific minds.
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