All Girls Rocket Team Trial Launch Field Notes March 10, 2012
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Clubs, contests, Teens.Tags: aeronautics, competition, girls, rockets, teens
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This year, our rocket team is participating in the Team America Rocketry Challenge again. We’re two of 15 teams competing from Massachusetts.
With guidance from mentor-scientists Timothy Dawson-Townsend and this team at Aurora Flight Sciences, Lizz Judge from Draper Labs and grad student Natalya Brikner from MIT’s Aero Astro Department, the two teams have been using a simulation program to design their own rockets that can meet these contest rules.
- Target altitude of 800 feet
- Duration of flight should be between 43-47 secs
- Payload is two raw eggs
- Gross liftoff weight of no more than 650 gms
- Rocket motor total impulse limit of 80 N-s
The girls built their own rockets and put them to the test last month. The weather was good, but a rather stiff west wind made it a little brisk! They were really proud of themselves, AND the lesson about testing and redesign was indelible.
Please make a donation so we can buy more motors. We think the teams cam make it to the national finals, which will be on May 12 in Washington DC. Please help us send them there!
Here are the exciting results of the test launches.
Rockettes
Launch 1: Decent flight, only about 600′ altitude, though.
Launch 2: Ditto, one fin failed, so we had to re-glue it.
Launch 3: Bumped it up to a larger motor to get more altitude, and bigger parachute to slow it down. HOLY COW! Altitude 796′ and time 48 seconds – that’s a score good enough to go to the finals! But it was a practice.
Launch 4: Counting as a qualifying launch, we kept everything the same, and got a decent, but not stellar flight, 786′ and 58 seconds.
Rocka Flocka
Launch 1: Catastrophic motor failure on the launch pad was just enough “umph” to lob the rocket 20 feet into the air, with no parachute deployment. Came down nose first into the dirt, burying the nose cone 5 inches into the mud. Miracolously, the eggs survived! Did require minor repair before launch.
Launch 2: A good launch, but despite being taped on, the nose cone departed from the payload section, and the eggs were ejected from the payload, from about 600′ up. Needless to say, the eggs did not survive. =-(
Next launch in a few weeks while the girls refine their designs and rebuild. Stay tuned and let us know if you’d like to come join us!
Update: April launch
photos here
MadSciMag: cultivating a new generation of citizen science journalists December 20, 2011
Posted by Science Club for Girls in Teens.Tags: girls, journalism, media, Science
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What a pleasure to partner with BetterBio and its brilliant founder Khadijah Britton this fall to launch MadSciMag, a science, media and journalism program “where teens drop mad science”! The theme of the inaugural issue is “What’s in that stuff?”
One team of girls met weekly in Cambridge to do research, develop and conduct interviews, and collaboratively produced a piece about endocrine disruptors in water–bottled, canned, tap, river–you name it. Here’s what they found out. Oh, and they designed the logo and site look too!
“A simple act like buying a can of soda can change everything. Little do you know that this little bottle of joy, meant to quench your thirst, ends up badly affecting the planet.”
- Imani V. Abraham
Another team, the Sciencettes, based at Lawrence CommunityWorks, were equally furious and passionate to find out and share what’s in the beauty products they use everyday. (No comments about the “girliness” of it please. Read the article for their rationale for choosing this topic). They took a field trip to Living Proof and even tried to develop their own brand of non-toxic lip balm. Read about their experience here.
We are passionate about keeping our bodies and communities healthy, and we want to spread the word.
Delighted that the inimitable Gladys Gitau who founded What’s Good in the Hood co-led the Lawrence project and that we changed her mind about science! And many thanks to Microsoft Cambridge for hosting the team.
Please comment on the MadSciMag site and let them know what you think. Help us encourage the next generation of girl scientists and journalists!
