Take off for the Year 7 rocket car project
Can you really make a rocket car out of foam? Well, surprisingly you can. And that's what Year 7 did on their first ever Langley Grammar School Focus Day.
This article was written by Kiran Anand in 7R.
On 15th November, we started our first Focus Day full of excitement to learn about making rocket cars! As well as being an enjoyable activity, the day enabled us to learn more about Physics, IT & DT.
In our Physics lesson, we focussed on the shape and weight of our design. The car has to be as aerodynamic and light-weight as possible to travel at maximum speed. We also wanted to ensure that the car moved in a straight line without any deviation. We learnt how with varying designs, the air reacted to different shapes. The rectangular and sharp-edged shapes created 'disturbance' between the air and the shape, while the curved, smooth shapes didn't make any. We soon concluded that a streamlined, fish-like shape is best.
In IT, we used a BBC Micro-Bit mini-computer and their website to produce a programmed stopwatch that would time our cars, collect performance data and help us identify areas to improve our car for the race day.
The DT sessions were focussed on designing and making our car. We used a range of equipment such as files, sandpaper, hammers, coping saws so we could cut our cars to our desired shape. Here we say thanks to the Sixth-Formers who helped us. We then hammered on the wheels and drew some eye-catching designs on them.
We learnt a lot during our first Focus Day and are very much looking forward to racing our rocket cars on our next Focus Day in March.
