Cool Homemade Rockets
Getting kids involved in educational activities can be a hard task; parents and teachers have to compete with the Internet, television, video games and other distractions that children may deem more fun or entertaining. Creating homemade rockets can be one way to get students involved in an educational but fun activity. Seeing their work take off into the sky can be rewarding and perhaps spur interest in other areas as well.
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Bottle Rockets
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Some of the easiest but most effective rockets you can make at home are bottle rockets. Made from a 2-liter soda bottle and some basic craft tools, such as duct tape, scissors, string and markers, these rockets can be fun to build and launch, and you can add a level of competition, seeing whose rocket can fly the farthest or stay in the air the longest.
Cut fins for your rocket out of some thick, durable paper, such as manila folders or cardboard. Attach three fins, each equally spaced around the bottle, to keep the rocket balanced. Secure these fins to the bottle with duct tape.
Make the rocket nose cone out of cardboard, paper or, for a more durable cone, an athletic cone or small traffic cone. Remember that when the rocket comes down, the nose cone probably will take most of the impact. If you use a paper cone, you probably will have to replace it after a few flights.
If you want to add more weight to the nose, stuff a small ball of clay in the tip of the cone. Secure the cone to the bottle with tape or glue.
Add a Parachute
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To add a parachute to your bottle rocket, you need another 2-liter bottle. Cut the top and bottom off of one of the soda bottles so that only the center cylindrical area remains. Tape this cylinder to the bottom of the other bottle before you do anything else with the other bottle. This will be the place to store your parachute.
When attaching the nose cone, use duct tape to attach a piece of string into the top of the inside of the cone, and run the other end of the string into the top cylindrical area of the rocket. This way, when the rocket reaches its apex, the cone will fall off and deploy the parachute.
Make the parachute out of a plastic garbage bag. Cut the sealed bottom of the bag so that both ends are open, and lay it on a table with the short open ends facing yourself. Fold the bag so that it forms a triangle that is wider than the top of the bottle, so that it will catch air to slow down the bottle. Attach duct tape or binder punch hole reinforcements at equal spaces around the parachute, and punch through the hole. Attach strings through these holes and secure them inside the cylindrical area of the bottle with duct tape.
Match Rockets
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For smaller scale rockets, take a piece of aluminum foil about 1-inch wide and 3 inches long. Cut the head off of a match and roll it into the aluminum foil to form a tube with the match head at the center. Unfold a paperclip and push it in one side of the tube so that its tip touches the match head. Tighten the foil around the paperclip as tightly as you can; cut off any excess foil.
When the paperclip is heated, the conductive metal will light the match head, and the gasses given off will propel the rocket up to 20 feet, depending on the type of match.
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