Hannah Gibbons STEM Rockets Project X-51

On Wednesday March 27th 2013, the eighth grade students at Hannah Gibbons STEM launched rockets in our playground area. The objective for the students was to apply the engineering design process to construct, test and launch a water rocket using a real world problem solving simulation.

Teams of students formed rocket companies and completed a commercial endeavor to construct a rocket capable of lifting payloads into the earth’s orbit. Through a strong interdisciplinary approach, balancing science with technology, engineering and math, they developed a budget, purchased constructional materials and tracked expenditures while designing and constructing their rockets.

During this process students worked with Progressive Arts Alliance, who showed the students how to document their entire process. Students created a documentary video which will be shown at our STEM Fair and STEAM Festival in May.

On launch day students had to track the height of the rockets. The winning team's altitude was 39 meters. This team gets to launch their rocket again at the end of our STEM fair on May 9th at 7:45pm.

Sean Patton is the Principal at Hannah Gibbons STEM school in Collinwood.