Bottle rockets conjure up images of middle school mischief, fun and trips to the principal?s office ? which was exactly the point at the Southwest Academy in Woodlawn Friday.
The middle school is one of Baltimore County?s six west-side S.T.E.M. academies feeding Woodlawn High School, and instructors there thought a morning spent launching one- and two-liter soda bottles into the sky might spark student interest in science.
But the teachers kept it safe, igniting the empty plastic “rockets” on their mission with compressed air and water, not anything explosive.
“The name ?bottle rocket? has a certain allure to middle school-age kids,” said Tracy Rehmert, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics director at Southwest. “It was a way of introducing the kids to some of the concepts and getting them excited about science. It fits in especially well with eighth-grade curriculum.”
And her predictions were right: The students loved the program.
“Oh, that was the highest!,” Onan Green, 13, yelled as his plastic two-liter rocket soared like an major league pop-up. After a previous shot, the eighth-grader gauged and slightly adjusted the mixture of water and air for a perfect lift-off.
“This experience, it?ll make it more interesting to study in class,” Green said. “And kids in class will want to better so we can do more of the experiments.”
David Clash, one of four representatives from Lockheed Martin helping out with project, said students are introduced to thrust, aerodynamics, gravity and scientific method. Hopefully, he said, the program also will also lead kids to the robotics program at Woodlawn High in a year or two.
Under the direction of science teacher Richard Sherin, students constructed the launchers ? a small piece of plywood with a mini-air compressor, cork and needle attached. The compressors, hooked to a small battery, pumped air in the bottles placed upside down on the corks. Eventually, enough air pressure would suddenly drive the water out of bottle- and send an otherwise everyday object, into orbit or close, at least.
“Eighth-graders want to act like they?re not interested in anything,” said Ron Cameron, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County master?s candidate interning at Southwest. “When we first came outside, I thought, ?Oh brother?, but pretty soon they started running around and getting excited.”
