Spira Day 17: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No Wait Its a Rocket ship! (Pt.1)

Today was very exciting as were getting closer and closer to the end of camp. In the morning to wrap up the activity from yesterday, we tested the strength of the bridges built by the campers. We looked at how much the bridges weighed and measured how much weight the bridges could withstand before breaking. After testing the bridges and discussing what each group incorporated in their design we moved into our final lesson and activity. Our last unit for camp is focused on aerospace engineering! We looked closely at rocketry and gave a lesson on rockets and how they work. Finally we introduced Spira's final project for the girls--model rockets. Once again we split the girls into three teams and gave each team a chemical reaction that would power a model rocket. Each team must construct a device that will deliver their catalyst to their "fuel" to shoot a bottle cap up into the air. Alongside this, each team must also create a short powerpoint presentation outlining their design and the chemistry behind their assigned reaction. Tomorrow we will finish up the final projects and then present. Cannot wait to see what the girls come up with!