Starting a TARC team

[roytyson]

I have the opportunity to start a TARC team with a local high school in hopes to compete in 2023. For those that have started one or advise one, what advice do you have to help lessen the learning curve for both the students and me?

 

[Johnly]

I would suggest that they start building and flying an airframe to the 2021-22 specifications to gain experience, then transision to the 2022-23 design when announced.

 

[Starz]

Start them with Low power Estes kits. Start scratch building some rockets. Move up to MPR or even HPR. Try building a rocket by this year's rules. By next year, you guys will be more than ready!

 

[tHoagland]

I'm mentoring a scout troop TARC team this year. We started by having a short introduction into rocket basics and then each team member designed (in OpenRocket), built, and launched their own rockets. This gave everyone a chance to better understand the process and how to evaluate design parameters. More importantly, it got them building and flying, which keeps it fun.

 

[boatgeek]

That's great! I agree with pretty much everything up above, plus...

You'll need at least one or two students on each team with the following skills:

• Designing rockets in OpenRocket or Rocksim
• Cutting tubes and fins, assembling parts into a rocket (really, everyone should be able to do this!)
• Prepping rockets for flight, including folding parachutes and handling altimeters (ditto, this is for everyone)
• Processing data and deciding what to do with it (We expected altitude X and got Y, what do we do now?)
• Prepping reloads if you're going to go that direction

While it's possible to do this with a team of 4-5 (the team I work with has 4 active members right now...), it's a lot easier with a group of 7-10 plus. The flip side is that at that side, you'll need to watch and make sure that everyone gets a chance to learn stuff. It's also really hard to step back and let students do the tasks in building the rocket. I've gotten into a pretty good rhythm of showing what they need to do, undoing it, and then letting them do it for real. Also, it's great to have students teaching students. To do that, it's really helpful to have the students for longer, like in high school or a scout troop. In middle school, it's hard to keep students long enough that they become experts. Not that it can't be done, of course!

When students are learning to build and design rockets, it's fun to have a smaller-scale competition among the team. I've done a "B-duration" competition that was pretty fun. Everyone had to design and build their own rocket for either shortest duration or longest duration on a B6 motor. That got everyone doing different designs and all learning how the design and build process works.

 

[Ez2cDave]

Before formally registering them as a TARC team, teach them everything you are not allowed to do, later, as a TARC mentor . . . Designs, Techniques, etc.

Dave F.