GT Times

**Please note that while we strive to include as many students and their work as possible, we cannot promise to get everyone in to each issue. Thank you for your understanding!

The 4th grade GT students recently completed a learning unit on Aviation. To begin their studies, they learned about the "Principles of Flight". For those who don't know, the four principles of flight are:

• Thrust
• Weight
• Lift
• Drag

The students needed to understand how these principles interacted with each other to affect flight. After that, it was a smooth flight to the next topic in our unit!

If you want to learn more about the "Principles of Flight", check out this NASA site!

We all know that Sir Isaac Newton developed three laws of motion, and while all effect everything around us, number three is key for flight! To make sure they have a firm understanding of Newton's third law, the students had to create and video a demonstration to explain Newton's Third Law of Motion! Check out some of their awesome work below!

***Special thanks to everyone who helped as videographers, editors, cheerleaders, drivers, etc.! We appreciate you! 😊

Rocket 101 tells you that you need to know engineering in order to build a good rocket that works! Therefore, our "rocket scientists" got a refresher on the Engineering Design Process. The Engineering Design Process is a method for determining how to meet a human want or need, or how to solve a real-life problem. There is no set list of steps in the Engineering Design Process, but there are some common components. Designers must identify what problem or need the design is to solve or meet. Constraints such as time, money or resources are often considered. Ideas are researched, designs are created and tested, evaluated and redesigned, then finally presented to a client or audience.

The design process can easily be used by a teacher as a guide to follow to keep the project on course. It also provides students with an outline of how to solve a problem or design a solution to a want or need. The Engineering Design Process will help students see the overall structure of how to solve the problem and give them specific steps that will help them focus and optimize their work on the project.

🚀Before building and launching their own rocket, students needed to be able to talk the talk...just like a real rocket scientist! In order to do this, they had to master rocket vocabulary! Why don't you give it a try!

________ a wing-like projection from the body of a rocket

________ the height above a reference point, usually the ground or sea level

________ the curve described by a projectile in flight

________ the horizontal distance traveled during projectile motion

________ a fired, thrown, or otherwise propelled object

________ speed and direction of an object’s motion

• projectile, velocity, fin, range, altitude, trajectory

(Check at the end for the answers!)

On December 4, 2024, we had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Alex Konkel from the FAA STEM program! Mr. Konkel spoke to the students about the Four Forces of Flight and the Engineering Design Process. These topics are very important because the students will soon be putting them into practice with their own "aircrafts"!

To reinforce the importance of the forces in flight, Mr. Konkel did a demonstration using paper airplanes. There were actually two different models, and he conducted three flights for each in order to find the Glide Slope Ratio. The Glide Slope Ratio is the number that indicates how well a plane can glide without any thrust. After the plane was "launched", he measured the distance from the starting point to the point of initial contact with the floor. After three tests were completed, the students used a formula to find the ratio and determine which plane was the best. The students enjoyed the opportunity to not only share their knowledge of the four forces of flight, but to also learn how to determine the best plane using the Glide Slope Ratio!

After that, Mr. Konkel spoke about the Engineering Design Process and how scientists and engineers from the FAA use it to solve problems. He talked about a real-world problem experienced at some airports and how the FAA figured out a solution. Since all airports are different and runway length varies, there can be an issue in some places if an aircraft experiences problems with landing. This happened once in Chicago, and the aircraft ended up in an intersection, stopping traffic! To solve this problem, the FAA developed EMAS or Engineered Material Arresting System. After explaining this to the class and showing them the actual product, Mr. Konkel challenged the students "create" their own EMAS to slow and stop a ball rolling down a ramp. They were given the choice of three materials: bubble wrap, tissue paper, and a folded fabric. They could use any combination of them and determine the placement to stop the ball from rolling. This was a fantastic hands-on demonstration and showed the Engineering Design Process in action!

Finally, the day arrived where the students got to design and build their own rockets! Their materials included:

• a drinking straw
• one index card
• one small piece of clay
• ruler
• pencil
• colored pencils
• computer

After researching rockets, they used the materials listed above and created their own rocket! First, they had to decide how long their rocket body would be, with the length being between 10mm and 20mm. Then, they had to design fins, make them, and attached their finished product to their rocket body. Lastly, they had to create and attach a nose cone. Once done, they logged the measurements of each component of their rocket in their data log and then the testing began!

Check out some snaps of our "rocket scientists" in action!

After constructing their rockets, the students had to check it for stability. Stability gives a rocket the ability to have a smooth flight path. To do this they did the following:

1. Hold the rocket horizontally at eye level and drop the rocket. Let it roll off your fingers.

2. It should land nose first. If it lands on its side or fins first, it is unstable, and the fins might have to be adjusted.

4. Repeat step #1 after adjustments to make sure the rocket is now stable.

5. Before launch, you should check your rocket again for stability in case something was damaged in testing.

Now, we are ready for lift-off!

After several class periods of designing and constructing their rockets, the day finally arrived...launch day! Using specially designed rocket launchers, Miss Hunt and Mrs. Pettit helped our rocket scientists run tests to see if their design was Nasa-worthy! While testing, students were responsible for logging results on their Chromebook so they could analyze the data and determine the average distance at each angle, and see where their rocket best performed!

Some of our rockets were extremely successful; traveling over 56ft, while others had a bit more trouble leaving the atmosphere! All in all though, the students agreed that this project was definitely out of this world!

After completing their technical launches, the students had the opportunity to see how accurately their rocket could fly. Their goal was to choose the best angle at which to launch their straw rocket so it would fly through one of five openings in a vertical target. These targets, which were made using recycled materials, were assigned point values, from two to five points, based on the degree of difficulty. The majority of the students were successful in a least one of their five attempts, but the best fliers were Jadyn P. and Ella F., each tallying 18 total points!

We also wanted to give a shout-out to our guest launchers, 5th graders JJ and Joey! They did a fantastic job helping during our target practice!

2. altitude

3. trajectory

4. projectile

5. velocity