Water Rockets
One of our most spectacular workshops, this session encourages both creativity and scientific thinking. We’ll start with a discussion of air power, which is adapted to your class to ensure that it is age appropriate. Your children will then work in pairs or small groups to design and decorate large plastic bottles which can be safely launched outside using water and compressed air.
Focussing on the Working Scientifically skills of asking questions, observing and drawing conclusions, there’ll be plenty of opportunities for focussed talk as your children decide to include or discard nose cones, streamers or fins. Working in pairs or groups facilitates this discussion, as children have to negotiate with their peers and justify their thoughts.
Once the rockets are completed, we’ll launch them outside – this can be spectacular, with rockets often reaching heights of over 30m! We’ll finish the workshop by looking for patterns in our results and reflecting on possible reasons for these patterns before asking your children to come up with further ideas for future testing.
This striking workshop requires both indoor classroom space and a large outdoor space. If your outdoor space is more limited, you may be interested in our Rocket Cars workshop, which can run safely in a smaller area.
Curriculum links:
- Key Stage 1 Programme of Study: Working scientifically
- Year 2 Programme of Study: Uses of everyday materials
- Lower Key Stage 2 Programme of Study: Working scientifically
- Year 3 Programme of Study: Forces and magnets
- Year 4 Programme of Study: States of matter
- Upper Key Stage 2 Programme of Study: Working scientifically
- Year 5 Programme of Study: Forces
Documents:
Contact our schools team with any questions on [email protected].
Back to previous page