Three, two, one… launch!

By: Josh Bowne, Contributing Writer

Left to Right: Kaelyn Walters and Katie Caricco showing off their rockets ​

​For the past 20 plus years Mrs. Tonya Schmidt, Centralia High School (CHS) physics teacher has had her classes pair up and build rockets using 3D printers. The project requires students to design three rockets on a website called Tinkercad. ​

​Most prints take around 6-7 hours. To make things more challenging, each group had to change one component on their rocket. The changes the groups had to make were one of the following: height of the rocket, wing shape, wing size, or number of wings or mass of the rocket.

Once the rockets were printed students had to put them together which averaged around three to five pieces, and also had to make a parachute. The parachute would then need to be able to be launched from the rocket on its free fall down from the sky. 

On April 9 the students came to class ready to launch their rockets into the sky. They drove to Bicentennial Park and set up their launch pads. Students went one at a time launching them and then running after them trying to find them. Once found, they would take a rangefinder to find the yardage from where it was launched to where it landed as well as documenting how well it launched and what it looked like flying through the air. Katie Carrico a senior in physics stated, “Our rockets worked pretty well, they went very high and far, but the parachutes did not work.” 

The reason behind this project is not only is it fun, but it also makes the students apply their knowledge to real life situations. Schmidt comments, “Rockets allow us to study rocket science, momentum and kinematics with applications to the real world. We also change variables and go through the scientific process and analyze outcomes, discuss why something works and why it does not. Also, the mathematics applications are spot on.” 

The rockets use C6-5 rocket engines, so they are not toys and travel a far distance in the air. Schmidt enjoys watching the students light up when they launch their rockets and watch in awe as their design soars into the sky.