Written by: Oswego County BOCES

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BLASTOFF! Manning the launch pad controls for a successful launch of his rocket is Granby Elementary School Sixth Grader Benjamin Hughes and his teacher Karen Murdoch. Hughes and his classmates constructed model rockets as part of their science curriculum to reinforce concepts like forces in motion, aerodynamics, and physics. BLASTOFF! Manning the launch pad controls for a successful launch of his rocket is Granby Elementary School Sixth Grader Benjamin Hughes and his teacher Karen Murdoch. Hughes and his classmates constructed model rockets as part of their science curriculum to reinforce concepts like forces in motion, aerodynamics, and physics. 

It’s not often that a classroom project draws a large crowd of spectators, but that is what happened last week at Granby Elementary School as sixth graders launched their model rockets. Amidst clear skies all that could be heard echoing throughout the playground at the school was parents, community members and fellow students conducting an official NASA-like countdown for each student: five… four… three… two… one… BLASTOFF!

The three sixth grade classes participating in the launch built their rockets over the period of a few weeks using kits from the OCM BOCES Science Center. Once constructed, the students were given the opportunity to personalize their rocket. From paint to stickers, sports themes to patriotic in nature each rocket was artfully and scientifically prepared for the launch.
On launch day each student individually launched his/her rocket using a launch pad and battery controlled system that was included in the kits. As each student fired their rocket into the sky fellow classmates calculated the rocket’s distance and trajectory. Also occurring at the same time and tied to the launch project was an English Language Arts (ELA) piece. Students, acting as journalists, interviewed spectators, asking about the sights, sounds and smells associated with a rocket launch along with the spectators’ thoughts and opinions about the rocket projects. Once back in the classroom, the 6th graders prepared newspaper articles about their findings and interviews.

An annual event at Granby Elementary School, the rocket projects are closely tied to the 6th grade curriculum of studying forces in motion and Newton’s laws and reinforcing basic scientific concepts in electricity, aerodynamics, and physic