Any of you guys get "volunteered" by your teacher "better half" and some random ideas

Any of you guys get "volunteered" by your teacher "better half" and some random ideas

So I've been with this girl/lady for almost 4 years now. She's a good one, but she's an elementary school teacher. She convinced me to give up my
gorgeous bachelor pad, (a 1968 double wide) so she has some influence.

A few weeks ago I get a call, with the sicky sweet voice. Would I mind helping out the 4th grade teachers with a rocket project. I'm thinking I'm scared
Bleepless of kids. Second I'm thinking, "sicky sweet" voice means she's asking a rhetorical question, there is no choice of answers. And then my testosterone
and inner child (I haven't grown up yet) hears the work "ROCKET". Explosives? check. Something going really fast? check. Goes way up in the air?
check. I get to build it? check.

The word NO does not enter the equation, doesn't even make sense in a sentence.
"NO, I won't go build a rocket"
"NO, I won't go fire off a rocket"

So I'm sweating this a bit. A little nervous. I've got a rocket in a bag and I'm supposed to kill an hour of time assembling this thing with a 4th grade class.
I'm thinking most of the kids wouldn't give a crap, I'd be some kind of goon boring them to death. I test fitted the whole thing, got my CA(glue) in order, and
off I went, completely cold, no idea what to expect.

A bit of background on this "project" New Mexico centennial. 100 rockets, 100 schools. Goes with a curriculum of space industry in New Mexico, and the
whole space program. All 100 rockets in the state to be launched at the same time. Countdown broadcast live from the space station as it was passing
over New Mexico. That's pretty cool.

So I sign in as a visitor, put my "visitor" badge on, the secretary escorts me to the classroom. The kids knew I was coming and what was happening,
I was almost blown over, they were so excited, little boys clapping their hands under their desk. Weird. I got a round of applause for just showing up.

Then.... crap, they march the other 4th grade class in. Crap. 40plus kids??? really? and I'm the entertainment?? I'd met both of the teachers several times,
so that helped, good people.

Just to assemble a simple Estes rocket? Apparently, I'm pretty damn good, I blew past my allotted time slot and kept them all entertained for over an hour
and a half. I introduced myself, told them what I do, brought some things I've made, just crap honestly, stuff I had around the house, since I didn't
think of that before I left the shop.

Some RC plane wheels, with pipe foam insulation tires. 4grams. Lighter than the wheels I ordered and couldn't wait for.


And for the girls.. to possibly grab their interest in the whole thing, wash cloth holder.


So, I had the teachers pick kids to come up and help. Tried to break it up into steps, probably got 15 of the 40 to actively do something. Questions
flying like crazy. I had a blast.

I took the rocket back home, double checked all the glue joints, re glue'd. And gave it a base coat of paint. I wanted to send it back, but... the
teachers said there was no time to decorate, so I just laid down some paint. My business partner (thanx Jim) helped out and watched some
you tube videos on how to fold the parachute properly, since neither one of use has played with model rockets since we were 11 years old. Jim packed
the chute, double checked the launch mechanism. Fresh batteries, is it actually going to go off.

Today.... Launch day.... Happy kids, that was neat, they were SOOO excited. More questions.

We finally get outside, kids are probably 100 yards away, thankfully, this is the biggest rocket I've ever messed with, a G engine. I didn't think
they went over D's. I'm a bit concerned 1500-2000 feet, YOW!! school yard is a soccer field and a half, total. I leaned it a bit towards the wind.
The guy on the PA with the radio couldn't find the right radio station for the countdown. 90.7 dumbass, so my old lady drove her car into the play ground
opened the doors and cranked it.

The teacher who had worked on making this project possible (Rose) was the button pusher(keep the kids away). At the count of 8, it started to rain,
at the count of 3 it stopped, at 1, she pushed, and it didnt' do anything, and she was freaking, and I told her "just keep pushing", and then started
really freaking, and it started smoking, and I told her "Its going!!!".

And it went. Boy Howdy did it go, it actually went into the clouds. When it came back out of the clouds it was heading straight down, then the
parachute popped, opened flawlessly. It took forever to come back to the ground, several minutes. It landed on the street over from the
school yard. 300 kids screaming and hollering and just being generally excited.

I grabbed the old lady's car, and went looking. I drove past it twice and then got out and walked past it twice before I saw it. I was looking in trees
and on roofs. It was right next to the side walk, I should have been looking down. I got quite the applause when I got back and pulled it out of the
car.

I had a blast, it was pretty neat seeing kids actually care about something. The local PBS station was there, and I got an interview (pounds chest).

Its on now. I'll be back shortly with the random ideas.

That was fun.

Woops pics.

This is a GREAT post - I can totally relate to this! I am a fine mechanic and overhual microscopes and very fine mechanical instrumentation. I have a manual machine shop to support that work. A girl used to live with me who worked in a day-care and she wanted me to come to her class one day and let the kids look through a pair of binoculars while I stood there and talked about lenses. For the most part, when I tell people I'm a microscope repairman I always get the "you must work with lenses!" comment and also, for the most part, binoculars are pretty much disposable and can't ever be worked on (even expensive ones). At any rate, I encountered the same fear about how to fill the time - and had the same experience - the kids took care of everything and, by the time it was over, I think half of them thought I invented binoculars!!!!!!!!! GREAT POST and neat rocket!

Bob, thank you for the mothers day gift idea.


But seriously, I'm using that.

I bet 'ol Bob got rewarded nicely by the girlfriend...

Great story! I wish more schools would allow these types of activities.

After 1929, in part after complaints from his neighbors, Goddard moved his rocketry experiments to New Mexico, where by 1935 his rockets had achieved speeds of up to 550 mph and heights of over a mile and a half.

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You should research the neighbors, determine their political and religious affiliations, and be able to discuss their concerns and complaints, and read aloud their letters to the editor, to the mayor, etc. and then credit (or blame) them for Dr. Goddard's relocation to New Mexico.

For extra credit you can mention "dual use technologies" and the possibility that state, local, and federal agencies have opened files on the children who have demonstrated interest and expertise in rockets and rocket fuels. And perhaps mention the Israeli embargo of Gaza may have something to do with the fact that sugar can be used to create rocket fuel.

Bob : Great post. To answer your first question, Did I ever get "volunteered" by my teacher spouse, yeah many times in the thirty nine years she taught. She retired last year, but I enjoyed the countless projects she and our three daughters came up with. If you stay with this lady, I hope you have as much fun as I did with our many projects. It's been great, kinda miss it a little. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

JH

Bobw said:

I had a blast, it was pretty neat seeing kids actually care about something.

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I help occasionally with my high school robotics program that I graduated from. It's awesome. Turns out the best thing to do with kids is stop pushing them along and let their natural curiosity run things. The questions never stop...

Looks like fun. Those rocket motors do some major damage - make a light, long one and you can hit a mile pretty easily.

Time to play a game we play occassionally - rocket golf. Fill the nose with lead shot, remove the parachute charge, calculate the trajectory of the rocket, and try to hit a trash barrel on the other side of a football field. B motors are a good size for this game.

Thanx for the kind words. I have earned many brownie points at home.

And look, I was on TV, granted it was the local PBS news, which is just a bunch of college kids, but still pretty neat.
http://krwgnews22.com/?p=4446

I still haven't had time to write down our (business partner and I) idea that we have been talking about for years.

Those kids will remember this for a LONG time. Great job!!!

That's pretty awesome, I didn't think it would take off that fast, and we get to put a face to the internet name.

ebenbildmicroscopes said:

This is a GREAT post - I can totally relate to this! I am a fine mechanic and overhual microscopes and very fine mechanical instrumentation. I have a manual machine shop to support that work. A girl used to live with me who worked in a day-care and she wanted me to come to her class one day and let the kids look through a pair of binoculars while I stood there and talked about lenses. For the most part, when I tell people I'm a microscope repairman I always get the "you must work with lenses!" comment and also, for the most part, binoculars are pretty much disposable and can't ever be worked on (even expensive ones). At any rate, I encountered the same fear about how to fill the time - and had the same experience - the kids took care of everything and, by the time it was over, I think half of them thought I invented binoculars!!!!!!!!! GREAT POST and neat rocket!

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"Hey kids ,anybody wanna see what the sun looks like through these 50 mm binocs?" Too extreme?

Bob Thanks for sharing! I got volenteered to launch a rocket for my son's grade 1 class! I built a kit model of the space shuttle and off we went! The kids were great! My son was so proud! The second launch resulted in some damage to the shuttle so that was going to be the end of the show. Then one the kids asked if I ever put a rocket motor on a car? Well no I hadnt. He raced into the classroom and out he came with small diecast car. We taped a motor to it and launched our rocket powered dragster! LOL it was a flop! It went straight for a bout a fout then went every which way but loose! The kids loved it!
The last one we tried was a toy robot from the TV series REBOOT. the little red henchman robot of the bad guy. We strapped a rocket to his back and launched him! LOL! I still laugh! It was priceless! The rocket ignighted and the torso took off the legs and arms stayed at the lunch site! It was like watching a coyote/road runner episode in real life! It was a GREAT finale!
How ever much fun the kids had I had just as much fun or more!

What a fun story!! Thanks for sharing this.

This is one of the most enjoyable posts I've read in a long time! i wonder how many kids shifted their career choice from fireman to scientist! Thanks bob!

Took my minature live steam loco (5"gauge Sweet Pea) to a school tech class, and felt I was talking Swahili.

One ex GF ''volunteered'' my services to a freind of hers Stopped that mularky - did the job and sent her freind the bill.

The ''fall out'' was erm? ......interesting

Uuh ooh. I MARRIED an eighth grade science teacher this past December. Wonder if it's too late to flee to Mexico?

gorrilla said:

Uuh ooh. I MARRIED an eighth grade science teacher this past December. Wonder if it's too late to flee to Mexico?

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If not, fox her and go the other way - there's space in Norfolk UK - crap weather though

This is a great post!

I help out at our local tech school and with the robotics program at a local high school.

I love teaching and enabling others to learn and grow. It is really one of the greatest stokes in my life!

Maybe there's some hope for the future!

I really enjoyed this post.

It reminds me of the "good ole days" when dad would let us build rockets and send them up with us. He even designed some and we had big laughs at the failures and even bigger oohs and aahs at the successes. His mistake was allowing us to design our own and him putting boosters in and setting them off. Lotta ducking, running and dented aluminum siding put a halt to the juvenile design days.

The many hours chasing and searching for them(sometimes 6-8 blocks away) and one in particular, an Estes Invader (disk shaped) that went up, did the pop, started to circle down and caught an up draft and was never seen again. That one was our lesson to put your name, address, and phone number on all your rockets.

Ben