We had another early breakfast day. Getting to breakfast early was always a treat because it was a moment of reflection before a very busy day.
Group Photos: The first activity for today was group photos. This actually took a bit longer than I expected! First, we took a group photo of all of the participants for the week. Then, we took individual team photos. Finally, there were special group photos for people from certain states and the different countries that were represented.
Bottle Rockets and Rocket Launches: Next up was a true highlight of the week: launching rockets! First, we went into the lab and made bottle rockets out of 2-L soda bottles. We had to make sure our bottle rocket was balanced correctly so that it would launch straight. We were in a bit of a hurry, but we still were able to make a fun rocket. Then, we went outside with our bottle rockets and our traditional model rockets and got ready to launch them! My rocket had a spectacular launch and reached a great height. It was so high when the parachute deployed that it was not just in the trees of no return they warned us about but back behind them. I was a little sad to lose my rocket, but it was fun to see it launch!
We then launched our bottle rocket, which involved filling the bottle two-thirds with water and then pumping air into the bottle. It was then launched into the air. This was incredibly fun, and I really hope I can buy or make the launching platform for the bottle rockets so I can do this activity with my students.
Lunch: Next they whisked us back to the Astrotrek building so we could have lunch.
On To Mars Workshop: After lunch, we participated in a great geology workshop that combines both Earth and Martian geology. I can’t wait to do this with students. We learned to identify features on Earth in order to then identify features on Mars. This is all part of the Mars Student Imaging Project, which you can sign up to do with your classes. What I find most exciting about this is that the findings students have will be published as part of the research being done for this project. Real science by students – how exciting!
We also talked about Martian landing on Mars. We then created our own Martian lander to keep our probe (an egg) safe. We had three balloons, string, a piece of cardboard, and tissue paper to create our lander. We were successful, and we had a lot of fun completing this exercise. We also learned a fantastic tip for working with raw eggs: have students place the egg in a ziplock bag and leave it there. Even if there is a crash, the mess is contained. Brilliant!
Toys in Space: This workshop focused on the Toys in Space program where students play with toys on Earth and make observations about how they work. Then, students watch videos of astronauts working with the same toys and comparing how they operate in space. We had a chance to play with some of these toys and then see the videos. We then were able to make some simple toys. This was a fun workshop, but it was more focused on physics. Unfortunately, I really do not get into physics much in my classroom.
A T-Rex Named Sue: The U.S. Space and Rocket Center had a special exhibit of Sue the T-rex. We had some time to look around the exhibit. I then spent some extra time looking around other parts of the center.
Celebration Dinner: We spent the rest of the day/evening at an amazing celebration dinner at the Davidson Center dining and dancing underneath a Saturn V rocket! It was definitely one of the most amazing venues I have ever had the opportunity to attend a function. The food was amazing, too. Steak, a pasta dish, cheese covered baked tomatoes, a chocolate fountain, and salad bar were very tasty! To make it even more awesome, Homer Hickam was there to speak to us and sign his book Rocket Boys. I have loved this book for a long time, so it was amazing to both meet Mr. Hickam and to have a book signed. The evening was also filled with lots of fun dancing with my teammates (after they talked me into actually joining them on the dance floor).
Return to the dorms: We returned to the dorms after a fun evening, and then spent more time hanging out with most of Team Columbus. We had a great time chatting and getting to know each other even better. We finished the night late not quite ready for the last day and for it all to be over.
And, once again, you can find all Day 4 photos on Flickr.
