It’s all gone so fast, but we’ve just had the final session of STEM club! After weeks of research, designing, planning, creating and diagnosing, the rocket cars were finally ready for a race!
Since the beginning of the Summer term, a group of future engineers have been working in small teams to design and build a rocket car out of scrap materials. Inspired by the Bloodhound SSC – a rocket car with a goal of being the first to travel faster than 1000mph, we’ve looked at different ways of producing and controlling thrust. Thrust is the reason why, when you blow up a balloon and let go, the balloon shoots around in random directions. Control this thrust – by strapping the balloon to a vehicle – and you have a very basic rocket engine.
All of the teams have worked super hard throughout the half term to design and build their cars, showing the resilience to not give up and try again if it didn’t work out. Today was the final race, with a wide range of strategies on show. Some slow and steady cars made their distance carefully and methodically, while some cars released all of their power in one big go, at one point ending up with an impressive negative score! Well done to all who joined in – prizes for the winning teams will be awarded soon!
To find out more about the Bloodhound rocket car, please click here! (http://www.bloodhoundeducation.com/
