On Monday afternoon (7th November), Kusama class became a centre for rocket engineering! For a special 'one off' lesson in celebration of bonfire night, we designed and created working rockets. For this science lesson we wanted to make a plastic bottle launch into space (well, as far into the air as we could!) using only 2 ingredients - vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.
After learning how mixing the two special ingredients together would create a gas called carbon dioxide we began making an outside 'shell' design for our rockets. The children worked in pairs, and created some wonderful designs for their rockets. Vinegar was was put inside the bottle and the bicarbonate was made into a fuel 'package' with the highly technical delivery system of a paper towel!
We went outside to test our rockets. Each group presented to the teacher their rocket and fuel package. The bicarbnate fuel package was pushed into the bottle, the bottle was closed with a cork and carefuly shook to mix the ingredients together to create carbon dioxide in the bottle. The build-up of the carbon dioxide in the bottle created immense pressure which eventually released itself via popping the cork and sending the rocket upwards. You can see an example of this in the short video after the photographs.
Why don't you try this at home with your child?
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