Thursday, 15 January 2009

3......2......1......BLAST OFF!!!!!

Today (15th Jan) we set of our gunpowder rockets off. We have been working them for about 6 weeks or so but that's just a guess.

Some of the rockets were great like "Yoshi" which was the only which released it's parachute but others like "BAM" went spiralling away and the fins broke off.

There was a launch point and two points on the field 48metres away and two on the basketball pitches 53 metres away and we took the meaurments from there. Working out the average measurment was a bit harder though. We worked out the tangent for each measurement for each measurement for angle then times it by either 48 or 53. After that we added the height (from the eyes) of the person to the answer. We did that to all of the angles then added all 4 together and divided the answer by 4. That was the average height of the rocket then.

We're going off the topic rockets now and we are moving on to something else. We don't know what yet but we know a few options.

Anyway we all had a laugh even though it was FREEZING outside, especially when have to stand and just measure rockets!!!

Monday, 12 January 2009

Rocket Launch - Arrangements

Weather permitting we will be launching our rockets on Thursday afternoon - beginning at 2:45pm. To enable this to happen you need to ask to be excused from P5 at 2:25pm. Please see JWE or RWN for a note excusing you from your lesson. Come directly to S21 to collect your clinometer and rocket. To help you do your calculations of height you will need to bring a calculator to school on Thursday. T-3 and counting.....

Friday, 9 January 2009

Finishing Rockets!

This week we carried on building our rockets and added any finishing touches that we wanted. Anybody who hadn't painted their rockets had to do so and wait for it to dry until they could do anything else. We had to put in some special wadding so that when we set the rockets off the parachute wouldn't melt (like Sir's did :D) We also filled in an evaluation of what we thought of the Stem club so far and what we thought could improve it. Hopefully, next week we will be able to set off our rockets and see which one goes the highest!

Sunday, 21 December 2008

Bowling !!

On Thursday 18th Of December Brigshaw Stem Club set off on their first trip - Xscape Bowling !

When we got there we got our shoes and then went down the bowling lane that had been stripped of the stuff that makes it slippery so we all didnt go flying. First George measured how long the bowling lane was so this was how far the ball had to travel then we gathered round at the end and the senior technician explained how the camera on the middle bit between lanes records the scores and measures how fast the ball is travelling- it works it out in a very small 30cm space. Then we went behind the scenes and found out how the mechanisms worked. We found out that when all the pins are knocked down then are put on a circular conveyour belt the put out on a different belt the dropped in the correct slots then put back down on the lane.



After taking in all the info we went for two games of bowling and had a bite to eat then we all went home singing Christmas Carols on the bus :). This is Mr White trying to Bowl !! :)

Monday, 15 December 2008

Bowling trip

Following a unanimous vote in favour of a celebratory trip bowling, the rocket project will be put on ice until the new year. We will launch them in one of the first two weeks after Christmas.

Meanwhile, on to more important matters. Thursday's trip bowling. You will need to collect a letter and consent form from Mr Wayman or Mr White on Tuesday and make sure it is completed and returned to us by Wednesday preferably, or Thursday at the very latest. Anyone who does not have a completed consent form will not be allowed to take part.

There is a coach leaving school at 3:15. You will need to get changed and then meet in Mr Wayman's room (S21) immediately at the end of school. We aim to be at Xscape by 3:30 where we will have 2 games of bowling, food, and a demonstration by one of the engineers there into how the lanes and computer systems work. Our aim is to finish there by 6 and return to school by 6:30pm.

Please spread the word amongst other STEM club pupils of what they are required to do. E-mail them, text them, let them know on bebo, facebook, myspace or whatever other web-sites you use. Or even tell them face to face!

See Mr Wayman or Mr White with any questions.

Thursday, 11 December 2008

11th December Final touches!

Today we finnished building our rockets, adding the elastic to the inside and attached the parachute. We then progressed to decorations where we all had fun spray painting them. To spray paint them we had to first spray them with a undercoat then leave them to dry for 10 mins then we could spray paint them with the colours of our choice!

In the meantime some people from each group took their designs and brought them to life! They went into a different classroom and worked on the computers creating exciting text then cut them out by a machine on sticky paper so the lettering can be tuck on the rockets when they are dry.

Saturday, 6 December 2008

Building The Rockets :)

This week at STEM club we continued making our rockets. Most of us gluing on the fins and inserting the gunpowder cores into the rockets. This can be a fiddling job but very enjoyable.


We made our fins out of Balsa wood and using the equipment provided by the kit we had to build our gunpowder cores.

Me and my sister Agnes decided to build our rocket with not 3 fins but 6 fins! We think that by having more fins we will have more force to cut through the air consequently giving us a greater height achievement. There are many great designs produced by the students of STEM club here are a few picture to show you.















This is Jordan. Him and his group have an extraordinary unique fin design.















This is our 6 fin rocket. We had to double glue or fins on to ensure they didn't fall off.(not quite finished yet. We will hopefully spray paint it and add the gunpowder core and finishing touches next week.)















This is the engine. The 2 rings on the outside are to hold the gunpowder core in place to fit our tubing as we have a quite a wide tube for the gunpowder core to fit in.















This is "Brigshaw 01". STEM club saw this superb rocket blast off a few weeks back. Its a tough rocket to beat. Once it got to maximum height it was so high it was unvisible to me until it was on its way back down. Over 50foot high it blasted to.















Brent and Jordan happily building their rocket.















Olivia and Agnes working on their rockets.















Olivia, Beatrice, George, Alex, Agnes and Charlotte. :)















Mr Worthy.















Agnes and Beatrice. We had to hold the fins individually each time we glued it so that they wouldn't fall off.















Looking good!















The whole group listing on how to build the gun powder core and how to attach the fins. It's amazing how much you can learn by attending the best after school club on the planet