Primary Rocket Car Project
Science, ICT, Design and
Technology
The theory
 This project is designed to bring together children’s skills in science,
DT and ICT. It is truly cross curricular and was used with classes of
Year 5 and Year 6 children but could be easily adapted for any Key
Stage 2 children. Reception children made an excellent audience
during the test days!
 The project makes children think about their knowledge of forces and
its application. It is ideal for setting up an exciting fair test with a real
purpose and exploring the variables involved.
 The DT builds on previous skills of making a wheeled chassis and
adding the rocket body and there is plenty of scope for thinking about
the design in terms of strength and fitness for purpose. Many of our
cars were tested to destruction and rebuilt several times!
 The ICT spreadsheet skills give purpose to the analysis and the
presentation of the science results, the graphs illustrate the ease with
which the technology is used to present easily understandable results.
The other benefits
 The children work in teams to build their ‘team car’. This
generates a massive amount of discussion, social working,
collaboration, division of labour and peer teaching of skills.
The teams can be given real roles such as director,
resource manager, communications officer, mechanic etc.
The project was run with groups of 4 children and this
number worked well with all children being involved in
every stage from design to final presentation. The children
also naturally engaged in self assessment and target
setting in their enthusiasm to complete the work, often
coming back at break times to ensure they were on
schedule!
What resources are needed
Time needed is 6, two hour sessions (approx)
Session 1 introduction and design
Session 2 build and initial test
Session 3 exploratory testing
Session 4 accurate fair testing
Session 5 spreadsheet construction and data input
Session 6 presentation of findings back to the class
Alternatively it could feasibly be completed in a themed rocket
or forces project week.
Construction resources
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I cm squared softwood
4 Wooden pegs for axle holders
Card triangles
4 Wheels
Dowel to fit wheels to form axles
PVC tubing to slide over dowel
A water proof wood glue (available in DIY stores)
2 large cable ties
A 2 litre drinks bottle
These are suggested materials, your teams may have
better ideas for constructing the rolling chassis.
Chassis dimensions
The children will ideally calculate their own frame size for the 2 litre
bottle but if you want to pre-build an example or help less able or
younger children these dimensions work well.
The frame is held together with card corners and waterproof glue.
Wheels can be of any diameter or material as long as they are glued to
the dowel axle. Plastic spacers prevent the wheels fouling the chassis
or bottle and allow the car to run smoothly.
1.5 cm plastic tubing spacer
18cm
6cm
13cm axle
Rocket Body
The body is simply an empty 2 litre drinks
bottle fixed to the chassis. We used large
cable ties for ease of fitting and strength.
Completed rolling chassis
Chassis with body attached
Propulsion
We used the connections from a “ROKIT”
kit (£6.89) available from good toy shops
or TTS (www.tts-group.co.uk) -search
for rokit. The bottle is part filled with
water, the bung fitted to the mouth of the
bottle, the tube from the bung attached
to a bicycle pump (track pumps work
best and there is usually one in the PE
cupboard that you can borrow!). Pump
air into the bottle until the pressure is too
great for the bung, the bung is forced
out and the car will be rapidly propelled
forward leaving a watery trail behind it!
Click movie to view it again.
Testing
Cars need to be tested outside due to the expulsion of the water. Children
have endless enthusiasm for testing but not necessarily scientifically. We had
a play session before the accurate testing. The only extra equipment needed
is a start line and a very long tape measure to record the distances travelled.
Containers for water, and a 2 litre measuring cylinder for accurate measuring
of volumes and a funnel for filling the bottles.
It is the air/water combination which is being tested everything else MUST be
constant:Volume of water
Volume of air
(ml)
(ml)
bottle size, wheel type, surface, slope of surface etc.
2000
0
Children need to discuss the combinations possible,
250
we opted for 250ml increments, which gives each group 9 1750
1500
500
tests to complete, 27 if 3 repeated readings are taken!
1250
750
The play session can be used to narrow this down and
1000
1000
give the children a good idea of the combinations that
750
1250
provide greatest propulsion.
500
1500
( Which is bottle being ½ to ¾ full of water)
250
1750
0
2000
Results
Distance traveled (m)
The results can be recorded in an Excel spreadsheet which the children can design
themselves or use the one provided (it is pre-populated with genuine test data to
give an idea of expected results). More able/older children will be able to use the
Which volume of water propelled the car the
chart wizard feature to produce a line graph (XY Scatter and select points joined) or
furthest?
again the spreadsheet provided will allow
children to enter their data and the graph
will automatically plot. Data is only entered on the graph when a new cell is
selected.
10 The resulting graph is shown below. Click on the graph for the datasheet
and change the data to see the graph change.
8
6
4
2
0
0
500
1000
1500
Volume of water (ml)
2000
2500
Conclusion
Children present their results and conclusions back to the
class this is done with reference to the ICT data table and
chart. Are there any changes they would like to make?
Was it fair? Were repeat readings taken? Was the DT
design and construction robust enough to withstand the
forces produced? The use of digital images and video
enhance these presentations and a short PowerPoint
could also be included. But the question that must be
answered is……….What was the water/air ratio which
propelled the rocket car the furthest? And……….. WHY?
Extensions
Children can get carried away with this project and often provide their own
questions and this results in spin off experimentation without teacher
input. However possible planned extensions/differentiations are: To fine tune the ratios to find out exactly what water/air combination
between 1000 and 1250ml gives the greatest force – children use 50ml
(or less) increments and re-plot their tables and graphs.
 Use one water/air ratio and change another variable -wheel material or
diameter, test track surface etc.
 Use one water/air ratio and change the size or style of the bottle, add
spoilers to increase aerodynamics does it make any difference?
 Keep an experimental diary containing sketches and photographs,
thoughts and hopes, the highs and lows, the modifications and
difficulties, the feeling of the team are they working well together?
Support material
NASA website – loads of
rocket based activities and
teachers guides
(http://exploration.grc.nasa.g
ov/education/rocket/TRCR
ocket/RocketActivitiesHom
e2.html)
Instructions on building a
balloon rocket car, a good
weekend homework task
for all the family!
(http://www.life.uiuc.edu/boas
t1/sciencelessons/rocketca
r.htm)
Movie 1
Movie 2