Engineers Week Ms Regans class build Rockets

Ms Regans 2nd / 3rd class had brilliant fun today designing and building their own air powered rockets. 

First the boys and girls discussed how things can be powered by air. Pupils spoke of seeing windmills in Mount Lucas, kites flying in the wind and one of the pupils spoke of how ships were once powered by wind power. 

We then had a discussion about compressed air and how it is very powerful. The pupils learned that tools, brakes on trucks and machines in factories are all powered by compressed (or squeezed) air. Finally we learned that engineers work to design things that can move through the air easily. We agreed that each rocket would need a cone on top. 

All rockets would sit on a cork that had a football inflator needle running through it. Air was pumped into each bottle. To help keep the air inside, a small amount of water was put in each bottle. We had great fun launching our rockets.