6th Grade Rocket Launch

Wednesday, April 11, was the annual 6th grade rocket launch at Ryan’s school. Ryan and Papa have spent the last week working on the rocket. Since so many different components had to dry before the next step could be completed, they had to work on it a little bit every day.

The students had the option to pay to upgrade the body of the rocket, the motor, or both. I was the one who did the order forms for Ryan’s class. Some students spent as much as $40 to upgrade their rocket and motor! Sorry, that’s just not in my budget.

The day of the launch, I had a meeting at about the same time as the launch. :( But Rara & Papa were both available, so they both went to watch. Ryan’s rocket apparently had a fin broken by the student who put it on the launch pad. As it launched, it went up in a spiral, came down in a spiral, and continued to spin on the ground! I was at the school later that day doing my volunteer math tutoring, and most of the students were talking about how cool Ryan’s flight pattern was! See, no $40 upgrade necessary! (By the way, many of the upgraded rockets went so high and/or so far that they were lost forever. Might as well throw a couple of $20s into the wind!)

Thank goodness Rara took pictures. :) Ryan is in a turquoise blue hoodie. The largest upgraded rockets are the pink one on the left and the orange one on the right.