In this activity, students investigate the effect that thrust has on rocket flight. Students will make two paper rockets that they can launch themselves by blowing through a straw. These "strawkets" will differ in diameter, such that students will understand that a rocket with a smaller exit nozzle will provide a larger thrust. Students have the opportunity to compare the distances traveled by their two strawkets after predicting where they will land. Since each student will have a slightly different rocket and launching technique, they will observe which factors contribute to a strawket's thrust and performance.

Concepts

engineering, rockets, thrust, newton's third law of motion, stem

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Additional Tags

nozzle, strawket, integrated teaching and learning program and laboratory, teachengineering, rocketry

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 3 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)