View larger
Soda Straw Rockets
New activity
Patrons practice the engineering design process by creating paper rockets that can be launched from a soda straw. They then test, redesign, and do it again!
Open Activity
How-to Video
Teacher's Guide
Provides classroom connections, key concepts, connections to science standards, and additional resources.
-
Rating
-
Participants Enjoyed the ActivityParticipants Learned from This ActivityActivity Instructions Were Clear and Easy to FollowWould Recommend
Related Programming Resources
Reviews
Very popular
This worked well with younger children, even older preschool kids could do it with adult help. We measured out meters on the floor with tape, and the kids loved testing out their rockets.
It's a bird, it's a plane...no, it's a soda straw rocket
Without a doubt, this is an easy activity to get kids excited about. Getting them to learn something from it…well, that is more difficult.
The instructions are very easy to follow and perform even for very young participants. The recommended supplies of a meter stick or measuring tape, probably work better with a meter stick (or actually a standard ruler) AND a measuring tape (a twenty-five footer, at least). Also, plan on having at least a thirty foot open space with high (or no) ceilings for those participants practicing with their parabolic arc trajectories.
The single greatest challenge seems to be getting the participants to stop launching their rockets long enough to modify or build alternate models. It is also important to ensure that when building a new rocket or modifying their existing rocket, only one aspect of the rocket is changed (nose cone length, fin location, or fin arrangement). This is where being in a group works well: have one member of the team change nose cone length and have the other change fin location/arrangement, and then share their data/results.
Plan for lots of laughs, lots of fun, and lots of excitement from all your participants.
Soda Straw Rockets
This was a super simple craft we did in November for Aviation History Month. There wasn't a straight face in the library that evening, everyone was having a great time and laughing. There were little paper rocks all over the place. Very simple and fun craft that everyone can have fun with. We highly recommend.