03 Sep 2024
A few weeks ago, MASE ran their very first bottle rocket challenge for secondary students.
On a beautiful 22-degree day, five teams of students sent their handmade bottle rockets screaming across the sky. The students were drawn from Ungarie Central School, Murrumbidgee Regional High School – Griffith and the ALEC’s Deadly STEMmers program.
The rockets were assessed on more criteria than just their flight performance. Teams were expected to submit a video presentation, a promotional poster for their aircraft, and were judged on the overall aesthetics of their rocket. This allowed students to demonstrate their design process and to exercise their creativity.
Even during the flight challenge, distance was only half the battle. The teams were also required to build rockets that could stand up to the punishment of round after round of launches and hard landings.
Though Ungarie Central School’s monster rocket was firing almost twice as far as the Griffith and ALEC teams, it was our Deadly STEMmer girls who managed to take the comp. The members of team Giralang Budinya (Wiradjuri for “stars”), Jayla Undy-Beale, Danika Broome, Kaya Favero and Yalarah Simpson were presented with trophies and certificates for their consistent performance across the competition.
“We wanted to build 21st century STEM skills with the MASE Bottle Rocket Challenge,” explains MASE Deputy Principal and challenge coordinator Ian Preston, “The students had to collaborate, apply critical thinking and creativity and use the design process to create their rockets. They then had to further refine their designs through trial and error.”
“It was a really successful day,” continues Mr Preston, “The engagement from the students gave us great confidence that MASE is allowing rural and remote students to access world class STEM education.”
Well done to all our students who participated in the competition and special thanks to Grow Our Own, who helped out on the judges’ panel.
