Pat Butler
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2005
- Messages
- 573
- Reaction score
- 1
I was contacted by a TARC team a few weeks ago in order to do their qualifcation flight. I set everyting up only to find out that they had just ordered their rocket parts. They had assumed that they would build their rocket during class on one day and make their qualification flight the next day- without any practice. That was an unworkable idea so I offerred more support after finding out that their physics teacher wasn't familiar with rocketry. And they obviously were missing out on the educational aspects of TARC.
We invited their team to our launch last week and one of our members who is very generous let them fly his rockets all afternoon, get practice with the reloads, and then gave them a few hundred dollars with of cases and reloads.
I went to their school today to give them a wide ranging presentation on building techniques, stability, RockSim, etc. I was absolutely astonished at how much high school has changed since I went there. This is a small rural high school with about 200 kids.
When I first entered the room I noticed the kids were watching a moving being projected onto a large screen. I was an R rated moving that had a very embarrassing scene on when I walked in the door. What sort of school allows that?? Some kids had their i-Pod's blaring music or were talking in their cell phones.
Their teacher was a really nice lady but terribly unorganized. She didn't have any tools for the kids to use, so she had kids running all over the school to collect things. The kids had bought hundreds of dollars worth of parts that were sort of mix and match. Bill from BMS is a local guy so I had referred them to him and he did a great job of rushing their order and allowing them to pick up their parts from his house.
The teacher was really frazzled and it was clear that she wanted me to give them instructions on how to build their rockets. She came up with a few Xacto knifes then got some scalpels from the biology room. One kid printed out the centering ring templates from Rocksim and they wanted to cut them out. Rocksim wasn't printing out the center hole on their template- I had the same problem myself one time but couldn't remember the fix. No problem- I asked if they had a compass and they found one. I asked if anyone knew how to use a compass to find the center of a circle as these were seniors who all had geometry class. No one had a clue including their teacher. I showed them how to do that.
They spent the next hour attempting to cut out their centering rings. Even the teacher tried doing it. The teacher and 3 other kids all cut themselves with their Exacto knifes and one girl screamed because her scalpel had remnants of some part of an animal on the blade from the biology class. I started laughing at that point. One poor kid finally got one centering ring cut out after 45 minutes then ended up breaking it when he forced it into the body tube. His teacher wasn't fazed at all when his reaction was a series of four-letter words.
I've heard Jim Fliss state that all the time and it's so hard to believe what lack of basic building skills today's youth has. I finally had to give them a lesson on cutting. I told them they mastered the art of cutting flesh and now we'll try the balsa wood. They had bought some 60 grit sandpaper for finishing. We had to find a finer grit in their shop room and all they had were round discs that had vent holes in them apparently for an orbital sander. None of these kids knew how to sand! That was the next lesson.
We then went on to the fins. They couldn't figure out a way to get the 3 lines on their body tube. I asked if anyone knew how many degrees apart the 3 fins were suppose to be and they all gave me a blank stare. I have to wonder what sort of geometry is being taught at that school.
I finally showed them how to wrap a piece of paper around the tube and mark it so that it indicates the circumference. I then asked them how they would divide that width up into 3 parts. Again, no one had a clue. I showed them how to use their compass as dividers just like in the 1950's . I asked them if there might be a better way to do it. I finally told them to measure the width and divide by 3. I told the one kid to measure in millimeters so that it would be easier to divide. His width came up to 210 millimeters and no one in the class could divide that by 3 in their head. One girl finally used her calculator and was so proud of herself for 'finding' the answer.
I was feeling so sorry for these students. I asked how they thought they might draw a line on their body tube and no one had any ideas. I finally used their door jamb as an example. The TV show McGiver came to mind. These kids were just assembling their rockets using brute force. I ended up talking to their teacher for about an hour after class.
Their teacher had told me that they learned about CG & CP. So my idea was to just reinforce a few ideas. It became apparent that they had no practical application of the CG/CP relationship and how to adjust it, etc. There's just not enough time to cover that much material.
I felt so bad for their entire situation. I'll likely be helping them during the next week or so. I feel that as a mentor that my job is to assist people like this, and that's one of the golas. But it is a sad situation that they are lacking in some very basic life skills that they should be learning in school.
We invited their team to our launch last week and one of our members who is very generous let them fly his rockets all afternoon, get practice with the reloads, and then gave them a few hundred dollars with of cases and reloads.
I went to their school today to give them a wide ranging presentation on building techniques, stability, RockSim, etc. I was absolutely astonished at how much high school has changed since I went there. This is a small rural high school with about 200 kids.
When I first entered the room I noticed the kids were watching a moving being projected onto a large screen. I was an R rated moving that had a very embarrassing scene on when I walked in the door. What sort of school allows that?? Some kids had their i-Pod's blaring music or were talking in their cell phones.
Their teacher was a really nice lady but terribly unorganized. She didn't have any tools for the kids to use, so she had kids running all over the school to collect things. The kids had bought hundreds of dollars worth of parts that were sort of mix and match. Bill from BMS is a local guy so I had referred them to him and he did a great job of rushing their order and allowing them to pick up their parts from his house.
The teacher was really frazzled and it was clear that she wanted me to give them instructions on how to build their rockets. She came up with a few Xacto knifes then got some scalpels from the biology room. One kid printed out the centering ring templates from Rocksim and they wanted to cut them out. Rocksim wasn't printing out the center hole on their template- I had the same problem myself one time but couldn't remember the fix. No problem- I asked if they had a compass and they found one. I asked if anyone knew how to use a compass to find the center of a circle as these were seniors who all had geometry class. No one had a clue including their teacher. I showed them how to do that.
They spent the next hour attempting to cut out their centering rings. Even the teacher tried doing it. The teacher and 3 other kids all cut themselves with their Exacto knifes and one girl screamed because her scalpel had remnants of some part of an animal on the blade from the biology class. I started laughing at that point. One poor kid finally got one centering ring cut out after 45 minutes then ended up breaking it when he forced it into the body tube. His teacher wasn't fazed at all when his reaction was a series of four-letter words.
I've heard Jim Fliss state that all the time and it's so hard to believe what lack of basic building skills today's youth has. I finally had to give them a lesson on cutting. I told them they mastered the art of cutting flesh and now we'll try the balsa wood. They had bought some 60 grit sandpaper for finishing. We had to find a finer grit in their shop room and all they had were round discs that had vent holes in them apparently for an orbital sander. None of these kids knew how to sand! That was the next lesson.
We then went on to the fins. They couldn't figure out a way to get the 3 lines on their body tube. I asked if anyone knew how many degrees apart the 3 fins were suppose to be and they all gave me a blank stare. I have to wonder what sort of geometry is being taught at that school.
I finally showed them how to wrap a piece of paper around the tube and mark it so that it indicates the circumference. I then asked them how they would divide that width up into 3 parts. Again, no one had a clue. I showed them how to use their compass as dividers just like in the 1950's . I asked them if there might be a better way to do it. I finally told them to measure the width and divide by 3. I told the one kid to measure in millimeters so that it would be easier to divide. His width came up to 210 millimeters and no one in the class could divide that by 3 in their head. One girl finally used her calculator and was so proud of herself for 'finding' the answer.
I was feeling so sorry for these students. I asked how they thought they might draw a line on their body tube and no one had any ideas. I finally used their door jamb as an example. The TV show McGiver came to mind. These kids were just assembling their rockets using brute force. I ended up talking to their teacher for about an hour after class.
Their teacher had told me that they learned about CG & CP. So my idea was to just reinforce a few ideas. It became apparent that they had no practical application of the CG/CP relationship and how to adjust it, etc. There's just not enough time to cover that much material.
I felt so bad for their entire situation. I'll likely be helping them during the next week or so. I feel that as a mentor that my job is to assist people like this, and that's one of the golas. But it is a sad situation that they are lacking in some very basic life skills that they should be learning in school.