Squeeze Bottle Rockets

This is a variation on Strawkets I saw at RAFT, and I wanted to see if these would fly as well as the original Strawkets experiment I did with students a while back.

Four 6th grader classes conducted this experiment recently, and the results were conclusive - lung power wins! There's no comparison between lung power and squeeze bottle power. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures in class, so I took these pictures separately.

This is what we're building today.

List of Supplies:

• Straws, 2 kinds, one skinnier than the other (they should be able to slide easily inside of one another but not too loose)
• Facial tissue
• Index cards
• Adhesive tape
• Scissors
• Squeeze bottle
• A piece of soft foam to cover the bottle opening

All the materials are easy to find except for the squeeze bottle. I think you can find these at Target or Walmart in the travel container section.

The black piece on top of the squeeze bottle is a squishy foam with a hole in the middle for the straw. If you don't have anything like this, you can just tape over the opening, insert the straw, and tape around the straw to make sure that no air is escaping (except through the straw).

Try flying your straw rockets with the inner straw pushed all the way in & pulled out to the bendy neck of the skinnier straw. Experiment and find out which way works better.

Take a piece of tissue, twist and fold into an oval shape, and push it into one end of the straw to make it the front end of rocket. Cut pieces of an index card (try to have fun with different shapes and sizes) and attach them at the end of your rocket as tails.

These are some of the shapes I experimented with today, but in class, students are VERY creative with sizes (huge to tiny) and shapes (let your creativity explode). Have fun with them.

This is one of those experiments where I have the students yell, "Fail Spectacularly!"

So, go forth and fail spectacularly by experimenting with crazy shapes and sizes.

And always, I hope you have a lot of fun.

Roaring Roller Coasters

This is a project I do almost every year because the students have so much fun. 

The premise of the project is that there is a competition, sponsored by the premiere roller coaster company E², Extreme Experience, to see which team can build the greatest roller coaster for E²’s next project. 

The rules of the project are: 

1. The roller coaster must have at least one loop.

1. The ride should be thrilling (extra points for speed).

The tree different marbles represent three different types of roller coaster cars – empty (wooden), half-full (glass marble) and full (metal ball bearing).

The roller coaster design must support all three types of cars. After a run, all three types of marbles must fall/fly into a target cup. Rolling into a cup on the ground does not count.

List of Supplies:

¾” diameter piping insulation (can be purchased from any hardware store)

½” diameter ball bearing, metal

½” wooden marble

½” glass marble

Plastic cups

Adhesive tape

Anything else you have on-hand to build a support structure

First build. This was extremely accurate roller coaster.

Second build for the team that executed the roller coaster above. A team must have two loops after they complete their initial run, and this was an ambition design.

This team used the existing space very, very well.

This team put in two loops to start.

A very interesting use of a classroom furniture.

Another example of students being very creative.

An innovative support structure.