Reflecting On Rocketry Unit

This whole process was very exciting but very hard. It was hard because we almost never got along. We were fighting over the most petty things. But towards the end of the unit we started to get along more. We are really happy that the unit is ended because all it did was really cause chaos. We are currently working on a slideshow and it is not working well. 

 

We were are really nervous. After doing this unit I discovered a lot about myself. I discovered that I only stick with what’s right even if I don’t like the person. Ialso learned that I can get really angry really fast. The last thing that I learned was that I can do a lot when I want to and that I can sometimes can explode. I was a bit disappointed that I was partnered with who was partnered with because all we did was fight, fight, and fight. We could have gotten a lot done but we just fought. It was World War II.

 

After the end of the main part of the unit I had gained information on rocketry and people. I learned all about aerodynamics, lift, thrust, and drag. I also learned that people who seem to ruin things actually make things better.

 

I also learned how to cooperate with people who sometimes can be annoying. Rocketry has helped me learn valuable information about people and rocketry.

This one photo of us cooperating

Launching Rocket #3

Launching and graphing our rocket was very exciting. It was our last time launching and graphing our rocket. We were pretty sad. The 3rd launch was the launch our parents were watching and we were very nervous and excited.

 

When we were launching our rocket we were sorta nervous because our parents were watching. Gavin placed our rocket on the pvc pipe. Jasleen pumped the bicycle pump. Eva started counting down. “10, 9, 8, 7,6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Release”

 

Us getting ready to launch.

 

 

We were very excited to see how high our rocket will go. Our rocket went very high.  It went 9 feet higher than the 2and launch. We were very happy because we couldn’t have had a better result. We each had a certain job and we played it well. We also had to be clinometer readers and my clinometer did not work well. But I got an answer in the general vicinity. After the launch we had to take notes which was pretty fun. We joked about the launch and expressed our opinions about the overall launch. When we started graphing it was pretty easy since we had done it before. When we realized that we had 124 feet we were over joyed.It was our best launcher ever. We were not sad that the rocket designing, building, launching, and graphing was over because we were hated each other well not everyone hated everyone but we were definitely not the ideal group.

Building Rocket #3

We are building!!! We were so excited. Although me and Elisha did the most since Gavin and Eva were not here, we still had a fun time.

 

When we were designing it was pretty easy because we were using the same rocket design as before but we were just changing the body to look thick. We really did not need to give it much thought. It was pretty simple.

 

When we were building me and Elisha were doing most of the work because of certain circumstances. Me and Elisha went all out on making the nose cone, making sure that the nose cone is not lopsided on the rocket and making sure that the fins were about the same height and width. Eva and Gavin did not do much work because they were not there. Elisha, Eva,and Gavin made the body while Jasleen was making the nose cone. We all glued on the fins except for me because I felt that I would mess it up.

 

In the end it was a pretty simple thing that our group could of done but argued which slowed the process. We all argued over the same things every time even when we knew it was no use to start an argument because we had decided on the final (well almost everybody). It was challenging but we managed to get it done.

This is us building rocket #3

Launch #2

It was finally the launch. We were so excited. We had no idea how our rocket will launch because we had literally just finished gluing the fins on. We carefully handled the rocket and waited patiently for our turn.

Elisha placed our rocket on the PVC pipe. Eva and Jasleen pumped the bicycle pump. Gavin started counting down. “10, 9, 8, 7,6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Release”

 

Us launching rocket #2

 

 

We were very excited to see how high our rocket will go. But our rocket did not go very high. Just a few feet higher than our first rocket launch height.  We got 115 feet.We were not very happy because we could of had a better result. We each had a certain job and we played it well. We also had to be clinometer readers and my clinometer did not work well. But I got an answer in the general vicinity. After the launch we had to take notes which was pretty fun. We joked about the launch and expressed our opinions about the overall launch. 

 

When we started graphing it was pretty easy since we had done it before. We were very excited to start making rocket #3.

Launching and Graphing Rocket Number 1

Launching our team’s rocket was the most exciting part about the rocket unit. We all had fun launching the rocket and overall just the whole process. It was the first time we all launched a rocket together and it gave us experience so we would know what to do during the second launch. We cooperated better than we ever have before.

 

What stands out about our team’s rocket launch compared to the other teams launch was that the rocket didn’t go as high. I could see that our rocket just wasn’t as high as the other team’s rockets. My team job in the group was to place and launch the rocket. For me placing the rocket wasn’t a big deal but launching the rocket was. At the beginning I thought I might do something wrong and ruin the launch. But, luckily everything went smoothly. When I was a clinometer reader I felt that I would mess up like I thought at the launching. But apparently everything went fine. My answer was in the area of everybody else’s answer.

 

Our rocket went 112 feet in the air lower, than most of the teams, but we were proud of ourselves since it was the first launch. Our team decided that we should change the number and size of the fins because everything else was okay for us except the fins. After the launch one of our fins came off because it wasn’t secured/glued properly on to the rocket. But since it didn’t come off during our launch we were fine because the launch has already happened. But we thought that we need to be a bit more careful so one of our fins does not fall off during the launch. When our team started graphing we were a bit confused because we thought we had to do a certain step which we later found was not correct.

 

Surprisingly, our team managed to cooperate well during the launch, probably because we were not deciding or making anything. Our team was very good when it came to collaborating for the graphing part. Our team helped each other when we didn’t know what to do. It was good teamship which was what our team did not have a lot of.

launch 1 pictures

Designing and Building Rocket #1

Designing and building our rocket was very exciting and it was also very hard. We all had fun during research, designing, and building a rocket. We also had trouble cooperating which usually lead to all of us fighting. But we always found a way to resolve the problem.

Our research affected our team’s design because it gave us an idea of how we were going to make our rocket. For example, it told what type of tube we were to use. It gave us information that we were going to apply for our rocket designs. Our team learned aerodynamics which really helped us with building the rocket. We learned what lift, thrust, weight, and drag is. We also learned how to make a rocket, even though 1 or 2 people already knew how to make a rocket. But somehow we all seemed to gain some type of knowledge from the rocket building. We split up so we could have multiple resources for our information. 

Why did our team make that nose cone? We made the sharp nose cone so it would easily cut through the air. Meaning it would make the air go to the side instead of the air pushing the rocket down. Why did our team make the body? We made our body thin because we thought it would help with the aerodynamics. Why did our team choose 4 fins for the amount of our fins? We choose 4 fins because we thought four fins would help our rocket in a way. We just thought as a group that we need 4 fins not really having a reason as to why we wanted 4 fins. Why did our team want to have small and triangle shape fins? Our team wanted to have small fins as not to way down the rocket. We wanted to have triangle fins just because most fins are triangle shape fins. We thought that we should do the fins the original way, because that way has worked well for a while.

How was our building process? Our building process was very hard. As you will see in the next paragraph you will see that our group was always fighting. So our group was fighting during this process. But we managed to split everything so that everyone got a chance to do something for our rocket. What was challenging was that every time someone always wanted something that the rest of the team said no too. It was hard to find a way to compromise because as it stated below that our team was bad at cooperating. 

 Collaboration during the research phase was good since we were separated researching on our own. Collaboration during the design phase was not as smooth. We did not cooperate that well since we all want different designs. Collaboration during the building phase was better. We collaborated now that everything was already done. All we needed to do was to was make the the 3-D figure of the design. Our team did not handle different ideas well. Sometimes we worked well and most of the time we fought. We always seemed to fight, but we always resolved the problem.

Us building Rocket #1

 

Designing Rocket #2

Designing and building our rocket was very exciting and it was also very hard. We all had fun doing research, designing, and building the rocket.  We also had trouble cooperating which interrupted our work.

Our team decided that we should change the number and size of the fins because everything else was okay for us except the fins. After the launch one of our fins came off because it wasn’t secured/glued properly on to the rocket. But since it didn’t come off during our launch we were fine because the launch has already happened. But we thought that we need to be a bit more careful so one of our fins does not fall off during the launch. 

When we were designing our rocket we focused on what was important and what was not. We also looked at our rocket design from rocket #1. We also looked at our notes and saw that we were changing the fins. We made the amount and size that we wanted on the computer. Our team was very upset because one time or the other someone (almost the whole team) was changing the design to their own preference because we all had trouble listening to each other.

When it came to build our rocket we had no design. So we had to go with he only design which was Elisha’s. we were a bit upset but the real fun was making the rocket. We had to make our rocket quickly since we were out of time. When we were gluing the fins the fins never really stuck so we had to add tape. By the time we were done we were ready to launch.

This is us building rocket #2