By
Dale Harris
Oñate High School
In a collaborative project, including Oñate High School, Las Cruces Public Schools, the NMSU-USWEST Project, the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium and White Sands Missile Range, high school students designed, built and flew a high powered model rocket. This rocket carried a color video camera with an amateur radio transmitter to send the picture back to the ground station. After the project, students then created a video of the project. They also documented their efforts by creating a HyperStudio presentation.
At the beginning of the project, students used the World Wide Web to find information on rockets, high powered model rockets, and rocket payloads. They then discussed the information they had found and decided on a payload that would fit in the rocket to be constructed.
A field trip to the White Sands Missile Range was taken. Students documented the trip using a digital camera. The images were downloaded into a computer.
Next, students gathered the materials needed for construction and began building the rocket and payload. Human resources from the New Mexico Space Grant were brought in as technical advisors. During this phase, students documented the progress using a digital camera.
After the construction phase, the students were trained in the safe launch of a high power model rocket. This consisted of the supervised launch of several smaller high powered rockets at the school. Each student was assigned a particular job and then worked as a team with the other students.
Next came the big day when equipment and people went to the White Sands Missile Range for the launch. The rocket was prepped, the payload was tested and, finally, the rocket was launched, reaching a height of approximately 2000 feet. Not bad for a nine pound rocket!
After launch day, the video tape was edited, the data from the digital altimeter was analyzed and the digital images were downloaded.
For the final HyperStudio project, the students were divided into groups. Students work on the various phases of the class: the class itself, the construction of the rocket, the White Sands Missile Range Tour, and the launch day activities. Initially, students worked with the images that pertained to their area, writing information about the pictures. Next, students came together in a group and rewrote the pages. Lastly, the front page was created that joined the individual areas together.
This activity was successful because the students were working on a project that they were interested in. The project had many phases and covered many areas. Students worked with a range of skills, from painting and fiberglassing to electronics and computers. This allowed each student to find his or her own "niche" in the project.
While it may be difficult for a teacher to incorporate this entire project into their existing class (a new class was created at Oñate for this and the planning and coordination had begun two years before), the elements of the project can be incorporated. Specifically, the use of HyperStudio for presentation of any project that the students have done can be an excellent introduction to using computers and technology.
Use of the World Wide Web for research is an excellent resource. It would be wise for the teacher to spend some time finding sites for the students to visit, since the Web can be confusing and consuming without some guidance.
|
|
|
|
| |
| ||
