High School Rocketry - beginning a new program

A friend is a high school math and physics teacher at a private school. His principle has asked him to start a rocketry club/class/??. He is looking for leads on programs, sources and distributors. I said I would help, but I have no experience with the programs, so I am not actually that much help:cyclops:. I would appreciate any leads the forum can give.

Here's a good start:

https://www.nar.org/educational-resources/

And Fliskits is great source for kits.
Check their Educator's section.

Here is a program geared towards high school students. https://www.rockets4schools.org/

I have run an after school rocket club for elementary/middle school kids at my school for 18 years. We are going to have our first launch of the season on Thursday with about thirty kids ranging from first through eighth grades.

We typically build Estes/Quest/Custom rockets, but we have also done some bigger projects including a 12.75" diameter carbon fiber upscale of the Binder Design Dragonfly.
We have bought our rockets from Belleville Hobby for all 18 years with great service rendered.

I don't have a program written up, but I will revisit this thread after school is out.

Good luck, it is a lot of fun!

Balsa Machining is a good source for school kits too... https://www.balsamachining.com

Thank you, Guy, for the NAR link. I'll pass that along.
Thank you, KennB, for the Fliskits link. They would be inspiring builds for kids who want to understand why one can step off the 3FN platform.
Thank you Dave, for the Sheboygan link. I had looked at them last night and thought they were just a Wisconsin thing, but I need to rethink how they might be willing to share their program ideas with other schools.
Thank you Dan. I have seen your mega Dragon Fly and your students, and I will say you have done an outstanding job. Those kids are blessed to have a mentor like you. I'll mention your success to Tim.

I also looked into the TARC and NSLI programs, and will be passing along those links as well. You all have helped me write-up a bunch of options for Tim, and his students.

Thanks for reminding me of Balsa Machining, Cris. They really do have good, cheap kit with TTW fins and everything.

Igotnothing said:

I also looked into the TARC and NSLI programs, and will be passing along those links as well. You all have helped me write-up a bunch of options for Tim, and his students.

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I helped found a USRC SEDS team for UTC and competed last year. We placed well for first time. It was a great educational program. It became part of our academic senior design project classes in senior year mechanical engineering. It was a high power multistage L-1 competition. The academic approval process at college was harder from you know school bureaucratic processes and academia processes. TARC will have an excellent opportunity for high school students. They can use less regulated lpr and MPR motors to reduce costs. They could do an L-1 HPR multistage for under $500-$700 if they carefully picked parts. The MPR projects might be a tenth to third of the cost. If you want help with some educational math equations for nosecone design let me know in PM. In a cad program or 3D modeling program you just revolve a curve by equation around an axis. We developed our own rocket kit at first, test flew it, then modified a second kit. So we had a chance to test our academic knowledge in a practical lab. For high school students TARC will look good on resume'.

Local universities with SEDS programs will have solidworks or cad programs, and usually makerbots to help for educational uses. Check out the aeronautical or mechanical engineer departments. They love to assist high schools. The students toured us recently. As long as they make the nosecones, copy a .stl to a flash drive, and put the file in a makerbot then they've manufactured a nosecone for TARC. Universities can print this stuff educationally for pennies on a dollar or educational freebie donations.

Igotnothing said:

...
I also looked into the TARC and NSLI programs, and will be passing along those links as well. You all have helped me write-up a bunch of options for Tim, and his students.

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TARC is a great program and easily within reach of a HS club. HS students can only get into SLI if they place in the top 25 at TARC Nationals. SLI is an enormous amount of work but very rewarding.

cerving said:

Balsa Machining is a good source for school kits too... https://www.balsamachining.com

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I was impressed with the 3 inch school rocket .. 24mm mmt for mid power and under $20 .. very stout too ..no fin or tube breakage is unlikely while assembling like the smaller birds .

Kenny

I recommend SystemsGo education in motion program. My former high school teacher taught the class and it is how I got hooked into rocketry.

https://www.systemsgo.org

GuyNoir said:

Here's a good start:

https://www.nar.org/educational-resources/

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Thanks for the useful resource.