You can visit our education site by clicking EDUCATOR from our main page. Feel free to contact me via email. I have extensive experience with rocketry classes, beginner through advanced, ages 6 and up. More than happy to help
I believe quite a few people on this board have participated in introductory rocketry courses at various levels before, although I suspect the majority of such courses have been aimed at students younger than college level.
The Team America Rocket Challenge (TARC) program introduces many students from junior high and high school age to rocketry. That might be a good place to begin.
One drawback to TARC programs, in my opinion, is that they tend to motivate students to "jump in the deep end" too soon. In order to have a successful TARC entry you really need to move into mid-power and even low-end high-power rocketry (MPR/HPR) respectively.
MPR and HPR build upon basic principles of safety, construction and design first taught in low-power rocketry (LPR) which can be much more accessible to a beginning audience. Jumping directly from "complete newbie" status directly into designing and flying MPR and HPR rockets can lead to many avoidable safety and construction mishaps a solid grounding in LPR can head off.
A VERY good introduction into model rocketry (beginning with LPR and also moving into MPR/HPR) is the "Handbook of Model Rocketry" by G. Harry Stine, pretty widely available on Amazon.
Manufacturers such as Estes, Quest, Apogee and FlisKits also offer plenty of educational resources, as does the National Association of Rocketry.
Here's a quick one from Estes...
https://www2.estesrockets.com/pdf/Science_Curriculum.pdf
and another one from Texas Tech...
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/tstem/curriculum/rocketry/rocketry_content.php
I'm a longtime fan of the Stine handbook and own it. Thanks for the info on the TARC program too. I'm starting to look into that. Thanks again.
I don't know if I've ever heard of an actual school class (9-12 weeks, 4-5 days a week, several hours of homework per week) focusing strictly on rocketry.
I think a lot of people here have taught rocketry classes as part of summer rec, community ed, Scouting/4H programs, or even as week-long units in science classes, but I don't know if I've ever heard of an actual school class (9-12 weeks, 4-5 days a week, several hours of homework per week) focusing strictly on rocketry. That would be a humungous amount of time immersion for rocketry. Plus the costs for materials could zoom pretty high.
I suppose you could do it in Sunbelt regions where you can launch year round, or maybe in spring or fall quarters up North. Although if you did it in fall quarter up North you'd be running the risk of weather getting progressively worse as the class went on and presumably finished more flight-ready projects.
I suppose you could do a semester-length class in the North starting in January, with the first several weeks devoted to in-class topics and then moving into actually flying rockets in March/April.
It would be awesome if anyone could do it, but I have never heard of it actually being done. Maybe now with the rise of specialized charter schools focusing on particular subject concentrations, a school with heavy emphasis on math/science/ STEM might actually offer such a course.
Just curious... Have you played with OpenRocket at all? It's a lot cheaper (read: FREE), and with a little practice the results can be quite striking...
Binder Design Velociraptor (BT-60 Downscale)(Two Stage)
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