Lesson 6: Final Rocket Construction and Launch
Duration of Days: 3
Lesson Objective
Students will use new concepts learned throughout the unit to construction a final rocket model that will exceed the distance their initial rocket model moved.
How will I combat and lower drag and air resistance with my rocket construction?
What role does the mass of my rocket have in it's movement? Is there an ideal mass for my rocket?
How can I increase the momentum of my rocket?
How will I build my rocket to accelerate farther?
Are there any elements of my initial model I should retain? How do those elements align with what I have learned in patterns of motion?
All previous vocabulary covered in this unit
3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
NGSS Cross Cutting Concepts:
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Cause and Effect
Energy and Matter
Mathematics -
MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (3-PS2-1)
Building and using models to explain real world phenomena
Students will utilize knowledge gathered throughout the unit to either make a new rocket from scratch or modify their initial rockets to make their launched distance increase.
Students must then make a visual model to explain the observed motion of their rocket while it is launched using concepts from throughout the unit.
Tiered Assignment, Flexible Grouping, Graphic Organizers, Multiple Assessment Options, Student Choice
Students will spend 1 day building a final rocket to launch. They will then spend one lesson gathering data on that rocket's motion as well as anecdotal observations. Their rocket must show growth in that it has better motion performance than their own initial rocket. Students will primarily be assessed on the visual models they make on paper explaining patterns they observed in their rockets motion and how those relate to unit concepts.
Rocket building materials (found in lesson 1 of this unit)
Rubric of Assessment
Final Rocket Model Guide (must include model elements - pictures, labels, explanations, arrows, a title, etc. - as well as unit specific concepts - Newton's Laws of motion, net force, balanced and unbalanced forces, forces during flight, momentum, etc.)