Twelve seniors traveled to Lake Jackson last Friday, May 8th, to launch the rockets they’ve spent all semester building. The seniors are students in Mrs.Adair’s rocketry class and have prepared for this launch all year. The twelve students were divided into two teams of six, each launching their own rocket with the Systems Go program.

“Both cleared their initial checkpoints quickly, and made it to the launch pad.” Mrs.Adair said. “Both took off beautifully, both parachutes deployed, and we had soft, easy recoveries. I couldn’t have asked for more! The students had to engineer everything about the rocket – from the type of body tube to use, the shape of the nose cone and fins, how to secure everything inside so it wouldn’t come apart with the force of the chute opening, and what altitude they expected to achieve. I offered minimal guidance – the credit is truly theirs.”

“I was very proud of our students for their teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving skills. I had given each “team” a different colored shirt. However, in the check station, the shirts were quickly mixed up as students from both teams worked on both rockets to get them both in the air. After our launch, we celebrated with a trip to the beach (a first for some of our students) and a visit to NASA. I think they understood the magnitude of what NASA is all about after spending a semester on one, comparatively small, rocket.”