Lesson plan (Alternative to UBD)
Rocket Lesson Plan
NJ standards addressed in the lesson.
a. 5.1 ll Students Will Learn To Identify Systems Of Interacting Components And
Understand How Their Interactions Combine To Produce The Overall Behavior Of The
System.
b. 5.2 All Students Will Develop Problem-Solving, Decision-Making And Inquiry Skills,
Reflected By Formulating Usable Questions And Hypotheses, Planning Experiments,
Conducting Systematic Observations, Interpreting And Analyzing Data, Drawing
Conclusions, And Communicating Results.
c. 5.4 All Students Will Develop An Understanding Of Technology As An Application Of
Scientific Principles.
d. 5.5 All Students Will Integrate Mathematics As A Tool For Problem-Solving In Science,
And As A Means Of Expressing And/Or Modeling Scientific Theories.
e. 5.9 All Students Will Gain An Understanding Of Natural Laws As They Apply To
Motion, Forces, And Energy Transformations.
2.
Students should already know:
a.
Students should have some basic skills with constructing
b.
Students should have some understanding of forces
3.
Goals:
Students will be able to design a rocket that will launch from air pressure from a soda bottle
Students will have some understanding of pressure ratios when consistent with the bottles and rockets
surface area
Students will be able to identify parts of the engineering design process
Students will have some knowledge of different types of engineers and what they do.
4.
Student difficulties:
Students might have difficulties with keeping air from leaking out of the top of their rockets
Students might struggle with the concepts of pressure
5.
Equipment:
Magazine pages, scotch tape, cardboard boxes, scissors, saran wrap
Lesson description:
Students will come together and have a quick teacher guided discussion about pressure. Talking about
which will hurt more an elephant stepping on you with it's large flat feet, or an elephant in high
heels. Talk about the ratio of force and area. Then tell students we will use this principle to design a
rocket that will launch only using air. Students will receive a handout with each part of the
engineering design process with areas for them to fill in with their own designs. Students will then
be shown the launcher and how it will work. After being presented with the materials students will
begin designing their rocket. When students feel satisfied with their first design of the rocket they
will come outside in order to test it. Students will then be tasked with improving their rocket to try
and make it launch higher. Once students have been able to make improvements to their initial
design all students will come back together as a group and discuss what they liked about their
rockets and what they would still like to improve upon. Instructor with then guide students in a
discussion about what types of engineers might use the principals they were using to launch their
rockets.
1.
Other possible lessons could use Energy where students would attempt to find the work done by the
launcher on the rocket by either finding the height or velocity of the rocket. Students would have to
find a way to measure the height their rocket reaches in order to do this which can be difficult due
to how high the rocket goes. If a the gym were to allow you to hang a tape measurer from the
ceiling or a rope with incremental markings.
Time Table – who is going to be doing what and when during the lesson to make sure that
students are actively engaged.
Clock reading
“Title of the
Students doing
Me doing
during the lesson
activity” Relation to
the goals
0 - 15 min
Students will
Students work with Lead the discussion
discuss pressure
instructor to talk
and answer any
about pressure and
questions students
how force increases have
with decreased area
15- 35 min
Rocket building and Students work in
Assist students when
testing and redesign groups to build their necessary and test
rocket and then
their rockets when
bring them to test
finished.
then resign in order
to make them
launch higher
35-45 min
Class Discussion
Students discuss the Lead discussion and
parts they like about ask questions when
their design and
necessary
parts that needed
improvement, and
how engineers
might use what they
did.
6.
7.
Formative assessments
a.
Students are able to design a rocket that launches from the launcher
b. Students can work with groups to improve initial design
c.
Students are able to come up with some ways engineers will utilize the principles they used
when doing actual engineering projects
Rocket Construction
Welcome Engineers: NASA is currently working on a new air pressure powered rocket and you are to
build a prototype. However you woke up late the day before your presentation is due and only have
some household materials in order to make your rocket. In order to achieve the mission NASA has
planned they need the rocket to be at least 10 inches in length and must shoot off the launcher at least
5 ft.
Materials Provided: Magazine, Scotch Tape, Cereal Box, Saran Wrap, Scissors.
Design: Draw a picture of your design for your rocket and write a brief description of why you chose
the design.
Construction: Build your prototype and test it. What parts of your initial design do you like, what
parts would you change in order for your rocket to launch higher?
Redesign: Draw a picture of your newly redesigned rocket. Write what changes you have made and
any compromises in design you might have had to make in order to add what you did.
Repeat: Repeat this process documenting any major changes. Discuss with the other groups how your
design changed with from its initial build to the last one you completed.
Teacher Notes
Instructor materials and cost.
a. 10 ft ½ inch PVC pipe. $1.75
b. ½ inch PVC elbow $0.75
c. Empty Soda Bottle 0 - $2.50
d. Hack Saw
e. Tape (Duct or Hockey tape) $2.00
f. Hot glue gun/ hot glue. $15.00
g. Magazines $2.00
h. Cardboard (miscellaneous price)
i. Scotch Tape $1.50
j. Cling Wrap $5.00
Student Issues:
Students tended to make the launching portion of the process into a competition. This could potentially
be dealt with by having groups launch at different times if that is at all possible.
Students who struggled with the initial design and did not see success did not make alterations, but
simply scrapped their design and attempted to use designs the saw worked for other groups. Making
sure students think about what is necessary in order to make the rocket launch off the launcher and
having them make a detailed design plan could reduce this issue.
Instructor Issues:
Using the bottle as a launcher is great because if the bottle gets ruined you can simply replace it. The
only issue is that you need to make sure that bottle cap is completely secured onto the PVC pipe
otherwise it can be pulled off when you stomp on the bottle.
The rockets can launch fairly high if build correctly (We had a few launch about 30 ft.) so its not
necessary to stop very hard on the bottles. Try to avoid the back end of the bottle which can potentially
be crushed and then will not re-inflate. You can get about 15 – 20 stops out of a single bottle if you are
not stomping too hard.
By possibly adding additional materials you could give students more possible designs as long as the
material is lightweight and able to be taped to the other materials. This could lead to more variety in
student rocket design.
Price constraints could also be added for materials that students use in order to bring in elements of
resource management. If this is something you would like to do making saran wrap cost and magazine
pages the least and scotch tape and cardboard the most would be likely to cause students to create very
lightweight rockets which will shoot much higher. You could also reverse the two to make sturdier
rockets that would not shoot as high. Depending on your location restraints these may be some options
you might want to consider.
Avoid making a prototype of your own to show students before they design their own rockets as
students will tend to copy your prototype instead of coming up with their own original design.