Sheffield — This semester, four students at Mt. Everett Regional High School are taking part in The American Rocketry Challenge, which, according to its website, is the world’s largest rocket contest with nearly 5,000 middle and high school students taking part each year.
As part of the contest, the students build, design, and launch model rockets and use their hands-on experience to solve engineering problems.
According to school Technology Director Chris Thompson, the challenge is for the students to use an egg as the rocket’s “passenger”, get their rocket to soar to 850 feet in the air, and get back down to earth in 45 seconds without a crack in the egg.
“The rocket has an egg protected in foam and an altimeter to measure air pressure in its payload,” Thompson said. “There is always some wrinkle to the contest each year. This year, it is that the payload and the fuselage must come down separately under their own parachute, rather than being tethered together with a shock cord.”
View one of the recent test launches below.
“Joining the group has been a great way for me to learn about logic to solve problems, and how things work,” group member Danny Wilkinson, 16, said. “It helped me to understand a little more about how a rocket works and how to put physics into action. It’s good that I’m getting to see that first hand.”
“Before I joined the group, I never knew how a rocket worked,” Omar Cruz, 17, added. “I learned a lot about how to build and operate technology from this program. I do want to get into engineering as a career, so this has helped me a lot when it comes to thinking about how to build and design things.”
Thompson said that students learn and utilize multiple problem solving skills as part of the program. “The real challenge of the program is analyzing the thrust of the rocket engine compared to the rocket’s mass,” Thompson wrote to The Berkshire Edge via email. “Yes, the nose cone and fins mean a lot to reduce drag and give the rocket stability in flight, but thrust vs. weight is everything in getting to an exact altitude. And then during the descent, the students need to assess their mass vs. drag of the parachute and what balance of those factors will touchdown within the time requirement and keep the egg from breaking.”
Thompson added that the rocket program was made possible in part by an Eagle Fund grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
