Compressed Air Rocket Fin Design

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Compressed Air Rocket Fin Design challenge is based on the Compressed Air Rocket Launcher made by Air Rocket Works. Students use 3D modeling and printing to design a lightweight aerodynamic fin structure for the rocket while leveraging the NASA/Glen Research Center materials on the science of flights. How I Designed This The Compressed Air Rocket tubes in the Air Rocket Works system are designed with 20 lb paper rolled around a 1" PVC pipe cut in lengths of 12". The 3D model fins then slide around the main rocket tube and are taped on. Thin, lightweight PLA is brittle compared to paper fins when crashing against hard concrete. Only use the hard PLA fins over grassy area rocket launches. The PLA offers advantage over paper fins in that each launch will not result in major deformations from the rocket landing. The extra circular seal of the PLA also helps keep the paper rocket tube from exploding outward. Project: Compressed Air Rocket Fin Design Compressed Air Rocket Fin Design Students depending on grade level and depth of complexity will study fin design for rockets then test their designs on the Compressed Air Rocket Launcher. Overview & Background Educators will have a real world application of fin design to use with their lesson plans when leveraging the NASA/Glen Research Center Science of Flight program. Objectives Depending on the grade level of the students, students may be working with simple shapes at K-1, calculating the area and perimeter of shapes G2-3, or calculating angles and physics concepts at even higher grades. Audiences Compressed Air Rocket Fin Design works for K-12 with complexity adjusted according to grade level. Subjects Science, Math Skills Learned (Standards) Identify and describe shapes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.1 Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.2 Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.3 Identify shapes as two-dimensional (lying in a plane, "flat") or three-dimensional ("solid"). Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.B.4 Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/"corners") and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length). CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.B.5 Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (e.g., sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.B.6 Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. For example, "Can you join these two triangles with full sides touching to make a rectangle?" Reason with shapes and their attributes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.1 Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.2 Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.1 Reason with shapes and their attributes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.G.A.1 Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.1 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes. Reason with shapes and their attributes. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.G.A.1 Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.G.A.2 Classify two-dimensional figures based on the presence or absence of parallel or perpendicular lines, or the presence or absence of angles of a specified size. Recognize right triangles as a category, and identify right triangles. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.G.A.3 Recognize a line of symmetry for a two-dimensional figure as a line across the figure such that the figure can be folded along the line into matching parts. Identify line-symmetric figures and draw lines of symmetry. Classify two-dimensional figures into categories based on their properties. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.G.B.3 Understand that attributes belonging to a category of two-dimensional figures also belong to all subcategories of that category. For example, all rectangles have four right angles and squares are rectangles, so all squares have four right angles. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.G.B.4 Classify two-dimensional figures in a hierarchy based on properties. Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.G.A.1 Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.G.A.2 Find the volume of a right rectangular prism with fractional edge lengths by packing it with unit cubes of the appropriate unit fraction edge lengths, and show that the volume is the same as would be found by multiplying the edge lengths of the prism. Apply the formulas V = l w h and V = b h to find volumes of right rectangular prisms with fractional edge lengths in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.G.A.3 Draw polygons in the coordinate plane given coordinates for the vertices; use coordinates to find the length of a side joining points with the same first coordinate or the same second coordinate. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems. Draw construct, and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.A.1 Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.A.2 Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, and with technology) geometric shapes with given conditions. Focus on constructing triangles from three measures of angles or sides, noticing when the conditions determine a unique triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.A.3 Describe the two-dimensional figures that result from slicing three-dimensional figures, as in plane sections of right rectangular prisms and right rectangular pyramids. Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.B.4 Know the formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and use them to solve problems; give an informal derivation of the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.B.5 Use facts about supplementary, complementary, vertical, and adjacent angles in a multi-step problem to write and solve simple equations for an unknown angle in a figure. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.G.B.6 Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms. Lesson/Activity Duration: Depending on level of complexity in scientific calculation and the number of test launches, this activity can vary widely from 1 hour to several weeks. Preparation: Project time could be shortened by preparing the paper rocks and Compressed Air Rocket Launcher separately. Otherwise students could prepare those as well since they are all part of the fun of building. There are several components of fin design that may be considered depending on how much educators which to delve into and the length of class time available: 1) Number of fins. 2) Symmetrical or non-symmetrical spread of the fins. 3) Shape of each fin including geometric angles used for each vertex. 4) Square area of each fin. Examples from the NASA/Glen Research Center Science of Flight program are included in the diagrams for additional exploration. The Compressed Air Rocket Launcher setup is based on the one from Air Rocket Works. It utilizes the same launcher many people see on MakerShed and at Maker Faire across the world. It is similar to the design that can be built from Make Magazine with DIY pieces from a hardware store. A kit of the components from Air Rocket Works can also be ordered from MakerShed and assembled in about 30-60 minutes. References Air Rocket Works:http://www.airrocketworks.com/ NASA Glen Research Center:https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktstomp.htmlhttps://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/rocket/rktslaunch.html MakerShed:http://www.makershed.com/products/compressed-air-rocket-launcher-v2-1 Rubric & Assessment At the end educators should see students experimenting with different designs and coming up with different values of measurement for success appropriate to the grade level.