Educator's Newsletter from the National Association of Rocketry - February 2013
INSPIRING OTHERS:
Kingsford High School, Michigan
Last year students in the high powered rocketry program at Kingsford High School were shown a picture of an Adam Savage Bobble Head tied to a rocket and flown by their rivals the Myth Busters...They could not let the Myth Busters beat them by flying a rocket with a person tied to the outside of it. That began the quest to fly a life sized Adam Savage Bobble Head they called Buster's Revenge. You can see information on the project link: http://www.kingsford.org/khsWeb/rfs/tripoliuppermichigan/AdamBobblheadrocket.htm
It took so many different prototypes to get the rocket to fly straight. They were constantly redesigning the rocket to stop it from flying with a curved path way. They found out how difficult it was to fly a rocket similar to the bobble head...it had to be much tall with a great amount of forward weight and with a motor of very high thrust.
The final rocket was a rebuild of a large rocket. It was 16 feet tall, 12 inches in diameter and weighed 180 LBS at lift off. The rocket flew in the Odd roc competition at LDRS in Potter New York on an N10,000 motor. The flight was perfect and really impressed the crowd! It was on the LDRS show on the Science Channel. Kari Byron loved the rocket and the interview was delayed at the pad as she took pictures of it . A picture was also posted on her twitter page wishing Adam Savage a happy birthday as the rocket was flown on his birthday. http://twitter.com/KariByron/status/224687884572172288/photo/1
It is one more example of how rocketry can benefit high school students. The engineering to make it work took us a long time as things which our software told us were stable were not. It was a great experience. We plan on launching this rocket again at the Richard Bong Recreational Area in Wisconsin in March or April. Our program was also a Cannon Award winner in 2005 and as a result of their rocketry experiences we see normally 60 to 70% of our students go into a science, math or engineering field when they enter college. Rocketry has done so much for our students