Unit Reflection: Rocketry

Now that the rocketry unit is coming to a close, it is about time to reflect on the unit in general. Overall I learned a lot about teamwork and rocketry. One example is that I learned that sometimes you have to let other people what they want when you’re in a group. I also learned that rocketry is all about the engineering design process, because you need to take inspiration before you retry a idea. I also learned a lot about fine tuning and building a google slides presentation.

During this project I had things that I liked and others that I did not. One of the things I enjoyed was building the Rocket, because it was fun using the design we made. I did not enjoy designing Rocket #1 because we argued a lot. I think that launching and graphing rocket #2 was really disappointing for me because we did the worst we have ever done.

All in all, In loved the rocketry unit and hope we can do it again. Plus, now I can say to people “This ain’t rocket science!”

Designing and Building Rocket #3

Today we were designing and building rocket #3. In this design we were allowed to change one thing from our last design, we decided to change the nose cone. Now instead of the nose cone being on the inside, it is now on the outside. We decided to change this feature because we noticed that the nosecone crumpled on itself in the previous launch.

Designing our third rocket was really easy. I think that it was really easy because we already knew exactly what to do. In this design we really did not run into any problems. Something that proves this is that the design took us only 10 minutes to make. The design we chose is a design that has 3 fins, a long and thin nose cone, and a thin and straight body.

Building our third rocket went mostly well. We did really good taping and hot glueing, also the fin measurements were very precise. The nosecone of this rocket did not go very well, because someone in our group put the nosecone on the wrong rocket. I think the reason that this rocket was so easy to build was because we already knew what to do, and more.

This, being a group project required a lot of collaboration. Our collaboration during this portion of the project was very good, but it had its lows. For example, when we were designing and building we had good collaboration, but when we were choosing our jobs for the launch, we argued a lot. Overall it went pretty smoothly and I am looking forward to the launch.

 

Launching and Graphing Rocket #2

Last week we were launching our first rocket, I had high hopes for the launch because we had improved our rocket a lot from the last launch

Our launch went very well. Our rocket went pretty high and my job was fun. For this rocket launch the job I was assigned was pumper, the pumper is the person who is in charge if pumping the air in to the rocket to create pressure that will be released when the chamber opens. Pumping the rocket was very easy and I pumped it up to exactly 50 PSI. Being a clinometer reader this time was fun, but easier than last time because we did the launch on a cloudy day, but on the first launch it was sunny.

The graphing portion of Rocket #2 was impressive but disappointing. When we graphed our score using the graphing paper we saw that our rocket went 16ft less then it did last time. We were very disappointed about it but we are going to push threw and do good next time, we plan on doing this by putting the nosecone on the outside instead. We think that this will help because we noticed that the nosecone crumpled in on the last launch.

Cooperation during this portion of the project was pretty smooth. Our group worked really well together and we launched with no arguments. On the graphing stage we also cooperated pretty well. I think that it went smoothly because we always agreed on everything.

Designing and Building Rocket #2

Today in class we designed and built our second rocket design, in this design we were allowed to change only one thing from our last design (See Building and Designing Rocket 1).

In our second design the part that we are choosing to change is the fins, we are making it so that the fins are bigger and now there is only three of them. We chose to make this change because we thought that three would be balanced like 4, except lighter because there is one less. We decided to make them bigger because the group that made them big got higher than we did.

For our design we decided to go with a sleek body, and a thin long nosecone, we thought that this will help so the air can flow smoothly. The design process was easier this time than last time, because we already knew what to do.

During the building we decided to put hot glue in the edges on the fins, to keep them on, we also noticed from last launch, that the inside crumpled from the air pressure, so this time we put tape on the inside. Just like the design we did this much more efficiently and fast than last time.

Collaboration during the building and designing of rocket 2 had its highs and lows. For example, during the choosing of what we were going to choose, we collaborated very well, but in the start of the building process we did not. But for the most part, our group collaborated well.

Our Rocket Design

Launching and Graphing rocket #1

In class we are doing a rocketry unit. Today was the launch and graph phase. When we launched our rocket we had to measure the distance from the launching platform to the clinometer station, we did this using a trundle wheel. I think that our launch stood out from all the others, because at first our nosecone popped off and then we went inside to repair it and then launched again, coming 3rd. Our launch also stood out because we had four fins instead of three. We all had jobs to help with the launches, for example I was the count down master, one person in my group was the pumper, and the other was the person who pressed the button to launch the rocket. I liked being the countdown master because it was my job to release all the anticipation with only one word, “Release!”

After launching the rocket we had to start graphing our rockets data, using a graphing sheet, our rocket went 146ft! Wow! After graphing and examining the pros and cons of our rocket we decided to to make the amount of fins three instead of four. We thought that this might be a good idea because the group that came first used three. Also three might weigh less then four, but be just as balanced.

Our team’s collaboration during the launch was phenomenal, we were perfect, and when we had to rebuild we were all in sync with each other and collaborated perfectly, same goes for the graphing stage. For example we had to hot glue on a really tight time zone but we did it on time.

Us launching the rocket

Designing and Building Rocket #1

In class we are doing rocketry. Before we could design we had to do some research on what type of model will give us the best design, so we got to researching. Some things that I learned during our research are the forces acting on a rocket when it flies, and what kind of design has the best chance of withstanding the air pressure that we will be applying. 

After the research was finished we had to do a Google Drawing, where we had to carefully plan out how we were going to build it, whether we wanted a thin or thick design, or a long or short nosecone. We decided to go with a sharp long nosecone and a sleek body for a more aerodynamic design. We had to do a lot of research to get the design right, but in the end it turned out pretty good. We argued a lot for what design to do, but eventually we agreed on a pretty good design, and I hope the results are good.

During the building process we had to first create the body. To create the body we took a thin pipe and wrapped thick construction paper around it that we taped. After that was done, we had to make our nosecone and then put it on the rocket all while doing what we had planned before. After we made the nosecone we made a template for our fins and then cut, and glued the cardboard. While we were building the rocket, we had to compromise and stray from our design a little bit. One example of this is that in the design we had put a really long and really thin cone, but we ended up just doing a medium size cone.

Collaboration. Being a group project, this project requires a lot of collaboration. During this project’s designing stage we argued a lot, but during research we did not. While building our group argued but not very much, and we actually got a lot done, My thought is that we argued because we all have very strong opinions, but when we do work together we do well. Overall, our group was pretty good but in the future I think we could work more pleasantly.

Us hot gluing the fins

 

Rocketry post #1

Rocketry has been really fun so far, between doing our inspiration board and our first design, and even researching. Our inspiration board was really fun because we got to make diagrams and learn more about rockets. Our first design was also pretty fun because we got to learn about how rockets actually operate and how the pressure builds up and then eventually lets the pressure out so it blasts very high.

For our inspiration board we went with a design that has our group name at the top and then a few quotes, facts and pictures on the bottom our group name is Blast Off!!!  it was kind of hard at the start because our group couldn’t agree on anything, but after a while we started doing pretty well and we agreed on adding more stuff like, quotes, diagrams and pictures.

On our first design we decided to go with a sharp nosecone and a sleek body for a more aerodynamic design. We had to do a lot of research to get the design right but in the end it turned out pretty good. We argued a lot for what design to do, but eventually we agreed on a pretty good design. I look forward to the launch and the rest of this unit.

Plant Post #1

My class has been doing experiments on plants, our experiment is instead of using normal water we used sugar water. We had a Question, “Does giving my plant sugar water affect my plants growth?” Then we made a hypothesis “If I use sugar water on my plant then it will die because it will get to much sugar.” We had controlled variable, and a manipulated variable. Our controlled variables were, light, soil, air, # of fertilizer pellets, and temperature our manipulated variable was sugar.

 

After the first week our controlled plant was 15 ½cm it is green and has 8 buds 2 flowers and has seven leaves. On the other hand our manipulated was not doing so well, it had four leaves, Green and 6 cm with 12 buds. The manipulated is doing worse than controlled.

Research Projects

In reading, we have been studying how to research using the research process. My animal study group researched coyotes. Our subtopics were Pups, What is a Coyote, Hunting and howling/communication. We organized our books from easiest to hardest, then we found the topics that appeared in most of the books and those became our subtopics. The most important thing that I learned about the research process was how to put facts you found into your own words.

 

After this project, we took everything we learned about research and used that in our country research project. I chose to study China with my partner. We used the Heathcote databases, our own knowledge and a book called “China” by Ted Park to study the different cultural universals of China. The cultural universals are: Politics, Social Aspects, Economics, Beliefs, and Cultural Arts. Once we finished researching and putting it in whichever category it fit into. We put all of our research in a Comic Tour Guide Book titled “The Cultural Universals of China.” My favorite part of the project was coming up with lines that my character would say. The most challenging part of the project was finding the right images to fit my project.

Maglev Blog Post #2

Today what worked was that we got the right magnets (strip magnets) and we also placed the magnets in the right spot which was one strip magnet on the left side of the train and the track and one on the right. We made like poles facing each other.

 

Today our first and second attempt failed, because we did not line it up right and the next time we learned that we had to line the magnets up better so we changed it to line up better.

 

My goal for the next design session is to make the train still levitate even being weighed down by weights. Another goal I have is to cooperate better in terms of who is going to hold the magnets and who is going to put the magnets in to place and if it does not work who is going to try there design next.