Build a Paper Rocket (3rd)
Students construct paper rockets to launch with air compressed in 2-liter soda bottles.
Videos below show how to teach the lesson, build paper rockets, set up rocket launchers, and launch rockets
Materials – Paper Rockets
- 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper
- 3×5 inch index cards
- Scotch tape
- Colored markers (to decorate rockets)
Materials – Launchers
- 2-Liter plastic bottle (1 per student – they crack after a couple of stomps!)
- 1/2″ PVC pipe: about 1.5 – 2′ length (Home Depot)
- 1/2″ clear vinyl tubing: about 2′ length, 1/2″ inside diameter, 5/8″ outside diameter (Home Depot)
- 2 or 3 rolls of duct tape, so students can share – otherwise, 1 roll is fine (to attach bottles to rubber tubing and pvc pipe to rubber tubing)
Performance Expectation. 3-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of a ball can make it start moving; and, balanced forces pushing on a box from both sides will not produce any motion at all.
Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size, or direction of forces. Assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.
Disciplinary Core Ideas. PS2.A: Forces and Motion
- Each force acts on one particular object and has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the object’s speed or direction of motion. (Boundary: Qualitative and conceptual, but not quantitative addition of forces are used at this level.)
Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect: Events have causes that generate observable patterns.