I think that overall, I didnāt like rocketry. Some parts of it were good but most of my time in rocketry was not amazing. I was put in a group of boys, I was the only girl. Mrs.Cooper said that if I didnāt like it, I could go to another group, but by the time I realized that I didnāt want to be in this group, it was too late. My group had argument after argument. I tried to solve them but I couldnāt. Although we made an inspiration board, built three rockets, and made a slide show presentation on rocketry, I have to say that I didnāt enjoy most of the process.
Some things I learned about rockets while designing, building and testing are that rockets need aerodynamics when being built. They also need enough stability and weight. When building a rocket, you need to know that a rocket being too heavy is possible. If you put loads of tape on your rocket or cover it with heavy material, it might be a little too heavy. Also, your fins must be very aerodynamic because they might not bring your rocket through the air smoothly and that might affect the launch.
I think that having three launches was great (apart from the arguing) because that meant we could try new and different ideas. Also, on the last launch we could combine our last two rocket designs into one. This was good because it inspired us to sprout new ideas and find out what other ideas people had. I also think that it made people excited to have new ideas about their next launch.
I have learned that working in a group can be hard sometimes, depending on the people and things youāre doing. Sometimes people can just be having a bad day. Sometimes itās just that they donāt think a certain idea is good. Sometimes it just may be that personās personality. Iāve learned some things about myself too. When I try to help with some arguments, sometimes the people who are arguing donāt want my help.
Sometimes I even get mad because my group is too busy arguing to listen to me. I know for future projects that this is all part of life and that you just have to live with it. Although my group argued a lot, there were some fun parts too. Three of them were the launches. There was so much excitement that spread around the class on these days. Some other fun parts were seeing our rockets completely built and knowing that our missions were accomplished. I also learned that remembering these moments of argument can make you laugh. It can make you think āOh, I remember those days with my group! Wonder why we were arguing so much anyway!ā One thing I can take away from this experience is that you should never think of bad moments as bad. You will always find something good in them.