“It actually felt really good to do that. It was awesome,” sixth grader Joshua Dahl said after setting off the first rocket of Two Rivers Community School’s launch day.
The team had attempted a countdown, but the rocket launched about eight seconds early because they didn’t push the right button, team member Ella Thornal said.
When asked what the group of six students learned, Thornal said “teamwork.”
“We had to all make decisions,” Dahl said. One thing they had to agree on was the design of their rocket — a cardboard tube with wooden fins and a plastic nose — and a team name.
“We made a mission patch, and it’s basically a meteor with all our names around it. Our team name is Millennium 25,” he said.
Despite the premature launch, the model rocket survived the descent back to earth — Dahl was excited to learn that’s what launch vehicle companies like Elon Musks’ SpaceX is currently trying to perfect.
Leading the expedition of 150 students in sixth through eighth grades to Two Rivers Park Wednesday was the aptly named “Ms. Rockett.”
“I’m Ann Rockett, and yes, I really am the space science teacher,” she said.
The rocket launch marked the start of the new space science unit for Two Rivers, which will feature physics studies through the issues involved with planning a colonization mission on another planet.
“Our whole model is problem based, and the students’ problem [in the space science unit] will be, how do you colonize another planet? What do you need?” Rockett said.
As more model rockets launched from the baseball diamond in Two Rivers Park, some of the spacecraft didn’t fare as well as the first lift off.
One of the first couple rockets flew sideways shortly after taking off, spinning around until coming to rest in the grass.
Student Carson Totty attributed the erratic flight pattern of his rocket to the duct tape used to repair the parachute tucked inside the rocket’s tube.
“It just doesn’t work,” he said. “That was the only other kink that we had. Everything else worked fine.”
“I loved watching it, though,” Totty added.
When not launching rockets, students were able to participate in tug-of-war, kickball and other activities, or eat pizza and enjoy the first day of spring.
tphippen@postindependent.com