Today was Homeschool science class at Health Adventure in Asheville. It was all about rockets.
It started off with the teacher talking about what rockets do and you can see I was trying my best to keep from jumping up and saying “blast off!”
We started to talk about what shapes rockets are…
I raised my hand and started (when called upon) to talk about how they have a pointy tip, a long body, and tried to describe the tail fins (albeit my description was a bit muddled – the teacher thought I was talking about decorations vs. the fins) For the next question, I answered how pointy tips make it easier to go through the air and how I knew how to make paper airplanes.
Everyone making a rocket shape.
Now we got to experiment with seeing how far we could make a piece of paper go. Well, I couldn’t quite manage the paper airplane. I got the first fold correct then got kinda stumped. I make a crinkle nose plane that flew reasonably.
Then we talked about thrust and air. The teacher held a ballon with the stem of the ballon (the part you tie) down and asked where the air would go when she let go. Some other kids said “up.” I listened carefully to the question so I knew the air would go down (and the balloon up) We got to try the experiment ourselves.
It went kinda up, kind of every which way.
Then we all sat back down and she talked about other ways to inflate things without using our lungs. She showed us how you mix vinegar and baking soda and it will inflate a “zipper style” bag.
Then we got to make our rocket experiment. One clear tube stuck in an upside down deli container with a hole cut in it to hold the tube. One “film” or “push top” (versus child safe) medicine bottle.
Me listening and thinking very carefully.
We filled the canister 1/3 full of water, added part of an Alka-Seltzer and super quickly capped the lid on. We dropped the canister lid-side-down into the tube and stepped back.
A few seconds later… pop! The canisters flew up and hit the ceiling.
Wow. That was cool
