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Flight Lab
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1.28
Experimenting with Model Rockets.
Reprinted with revisions. Cary I. Sneider. Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) series. Berkeley, Calif.: Lawrence Hall of Science, 1991.
Program Overview
The Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) series includes more than 50 teacher's guides and handbooks for preschool through grade 10. About 35 of these are appropriate for middle school. The series also includes several assembly presenter's guides and exhibit guides. New guides and handbooks continue to be developed, and current titles are revised frequently. The series is designed to teach key science and mathematics concepts through activity-based learning. The time needed to complete GEMS units varies from about 2 to 10 class sessions.
Teacher's Guide
Recommended grade level:
6-8+.
Experimenting with Model Rockets is a "nuts-and-bolts" guide that introduces students to the concept of controlled experimentation. During the activities, students work in teams as they design, build, and launch different model rockets (and a control rocket) to find out why some rockets fly higher than others do. Students measure the altitude of each rocket as it is launched, compute the altitude of each rocket in meters, and display the results on graphs. They also discuss other rocket experiments they would like to perform.
A prerequisite for this unit is Height-O-Meters, another module in the GEMS series, in which students build simple cardboard instruments to measure the altitude of objects that are too high or far away to measure directly. In this rocketry unit, students use Height-O-Meters to track the altitudes of their model rockets.
The teacher's guide includes background information, step-by-step directions for the activities (which require 7 sessions of 50 minutes each), a Model Rocketry Safety Code, and a reproducible "Experimenter's Guide" for student work. Information on obtaining model rocketry materials and supplies is provided.
Key to Content Standards: 5-8 (see app. C)
UNIFYING CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES: Evidence, models, and explanation; form and function.
SCIENCE AS INQUIRY: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry; understandings about scientific inquiry.
PHYSICAL SCIENCE: Motions and forces.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Abilities of technological design; understandings about science and technology.
Price:
$16 (ISBN 0-912511-20-6).
Publisher/supplier:
LHS GEMS.
Materials:
Available locally, or from commercial suppliers.
Topic Index listings linked to this entry
Use these listings to find related entries.
Altitude, Physical Sciences: Flight Lab, Earth Sciences: Science Experiments: Earth Science, Multi & Applied Sciences: Height-O-Meters.
Models, Physical Sciences: Glencoe Physical Science, ~ Matter: Building Block of the Universe, ~ Chemical Interactions, Inventor's Lab, ~ Newton's Toy Box, ~ Experiments with Balloons, ~ Experiments with Motion, ~ LEGO Technic I Activity Center, ~ Machines, ~ Science Experiments: Chemistry and Physics, ~ Simple and Motorized Machines Activity Pack, ~ Soap Films and Bubbles, ~ Structures, Life Sciences: Glencoe Life Science, ~ Heredity: The Code of Life, ~ DNA--From Genes to Proteins, ~ Food, Energy, and Growth, ~ From Genes to Jeans: An Activity-Based Unit on Genetic Engineering and Agriculture, ~ The Human Body: How Can I Maintain and Care for Myself?, ~ An Introduction to Biotechnology: Book 2, ~ Life Changes through Time, ~ You and Your Body, ~ Zebra Mussel Mania, ~ The Molecular Model of DNA and Its Replication Kit, ~ Order and Diversity in the Living World: Teaching Taxonomy and Systematics in Schools, Environmental Sciences: Plastics in Our Lives, ~ Water: Can We Keep It Fit for Life?, ~ Environmental Issues: Intermediate, ~ Environmental Resource Guide: Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention, ~ Global Awareness for Students (GAS): Studies in Climate, ~ H2O Below: An Activity Guide for Groundwater Study, ~ STV: Water, Earth Sciences: Project STAR: The Universe in Your Hands, ~ Asteroid!, ~ Earth, Moon, and Stars, ~ Earth Processes, ~ Earthquake!, ~ Earthquakes, ~ The Moons of Jupiter, ~ Project Earth Science: Geology, ~ River Cutters, ~ Stories in Stone, ~ The Universe: Exploring Stars, Constellations, and Galaxies, ~ Earthquakes: A Teacher's Package for K-6, ~ Earth Science Investigations, ~ Earthy Things, ~ Hands-On Geology: K-12 Activities and Resources, ~ Janice VanCleave's Earthquakes: Mind-Boggling Experiments You Can Turn into Science Fair Projects, ~ On the Rocks: Earth Science Activities for Grades 1-8, ~ Project SPICA: A Teacher Resource to Enhance Astronomy Education, ~ A Sedimentary Geologists' Guide to Helping K-12 Earth Science Teachers: Hints, Ideas, Activities and Resources, Multi & Applied Sciences: Models and Designs, ~ Prime Science: Level C, ~ Energy Transformations: Fourth Module in Bio-Related Technologies Unit, ~ Hot Water and Warm Homes from Sunlight, ~ How Telecommunication Works: How People Use Energy to Communicate, ~ If Shipwrecks Could Talk, ~ JASON IV Curriculum: Baja California Sur, ~ Life: Here? There? Elsewhere? The Search for Life on Venus and Mars, ~ Packaging, ~ A Sunken Ship, ~ The Teaching Tank Discovery Book, ~ The Teaching Tank Discovery Book, ~ Technology Science Mathematics Connection Activities, ~ Transformations: Science, Technology and Society.
