Upper School Science Students Test their Trebuchets and Rockets

10th grade Integrated Science students of Casey Reed and Nate Adkins, working in teams of two to three members, designed rockets made out of 2-liter plastic drink bottles. They added nosecones and fins made out of foam or plastic, some added designs, and each rocket had to hold 200-300ml of water for the testing. Rockets were placed on a launch device that allowed the bottle contents to be pressurized with air (to about 40 psi) using a hand air pump. Once pressurized, the rockets were launched by releasing a pin, and students measured trajectory as well as distance traveled. The top-performing rocket went almost 40 feet up into the air. Check out some testing photos.

As part of their final class projects and testing, Upper School science students this week completed two major design projects. Alex Siragy's Engineering students spent the final quarter designing and building wooden trebuchets. Working in pairs, the class designed four large trebuchets, each with a midsection that could hold a bag of sand and a pouch to hold their 'ammunition' - water balloons. During their building and testing process, they launched balls of all sizes, made adjustments to pouch/sling, payload and counterweights to improve aim and accuracy and increase distance of each launch. Finally, this week the class held a trebuchet launch demonstration and competition. Teams (there were four devices built by teams of students) launched water balloons at willing human targets. Check out some testing photos.

Our students love these hands-on design and testing projects.

Check out the photos of the testing of both projects.