In Week 3 of this term, the Year 10 Engineering class performed their first rocket launch as part of this semester’s unit: “It Is Rocket Science.” With the assistance of members of the Canberra Rocketry Group (Nev Blyth, Dr Tony Buckmaster, John Davies and Mark Bottomley) and kind permission from Dr Buckmaster to use his Yass property, the engineers launched 14 model rockets. Each rocket carried a payload of a small altimeter that allowed us to collect flight telemetry.
Since the launch, the students have been learning how to analyse the telemetry data using linear motion equations, and how to incorporate adjustments for air resistance to improve the accuracy of their predictions.
The next stage of the unit will be to design and investigate aspects of model rockets, including nose cone design (using our 3D printers); building and testing a wind tunnel; and extending the calculations to have greater predictive power and comparing them with rocket simulation software.
Dr Kathryn White
Science/Engineering Teacher
