Lesson Essential Questions
1) What are Newton’s three laws of motion and how do they apply to rocketry?
2) How do the amazing rockets of today have their roots in the science and technology of the past?
3) What Lego pieces will be used to build our NXT robots?
During this section of the unit, cadets focused on applying Newton’s Three Laws of Motion to rocketry and learned to solve very basic algebraic equations as they applied Newton’s second law. They also finished constructing their hovercrafts, and will soon be using the crafts to demonstrate Newton’s laws.
In addition to this physics introduction, cadets began exploring the history of rocketry. They learned that the earliest rockets were called “fire arrows” and were actually weapons created by the Chinese. However, these early rockets which used a form of gunpowder for combustion, were highly unreliable, and traveled only short distances. It wasn’t until Robert Goddard created the first liquid fueled rocket and pioneers like Herman Oberth and Werner von Braun began their work, that rockets developed into a more modern and recognizable form.
Our final topic of study for this section was learning the names of the Lego pieces that will be used to construct our NXT robots. Cadets worked together in groups to find and label the most commonly used parts, and they will begin robot construction shortly.
