Model Rocketry: A tool to Engage, Educate and Explore

"There's lots of educational activities for kids... what's so great about model rocketry?"

Having pondered quite a bit on that question -and after having put off many household projects with the explanation “but honey - I’m thinking!” - our conclusion is this: model rockets simply stir the imagination. They fly faster, higher and farther than anything that size really should. Rockets are accessible, understandable and they mirror - in great detail - a century of incredible scientific achievement and discovery.

It is amazing to realize that it was a mere seventy-seven years ago that Robert Goddard successfully launched the first liquid fueled rocket - a feat as epochal in history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk. Now, less than a century later we use Robert Goddards’ creation to explore planets, systems and places never before imagined.

And thus we arrive at the true goal of any rocketry education program: to encourage our students to imagine, envision and create something that they never before believed they could. Each student will find him or herself challenged to explore, observe, analyze and propose solutions. Teamwork will be essential, individual drive will be required and the willingness to try “just one more time” will be paramount.

Model rocketry can be the tool to connect students to the science of the everyday or the extraordinary. In exchange, students will have the unique opportunity to study, build and launch rockets with the same types of tools, techniques and talents that brought us from the era of Sputnik to the age of Spirit and Opportunity.