Welcome back from winter break! Cadets jumped right back into the swing of things today as we continued our study of the Cold War, Space Race and rocketry. We spent some time working on our Estes model rockets, and students discovered they were a little more complicated and required more patience than originally thought. However, anything worth having is worth working for, so cadets showed great perseverance and commitment to building their rockets well.
To compliment the building of our rockets, we started exploring the basics of how to calculate the speed of our rockets at different times along the flight path. We discussed the concepts of velocity and acceleration as well as average and instantaneous velocity. These concepts can be somewhat difficult to master, so we will be working with them for the next few weeks.
Gemini and Voshkod were the programs we explored today as we continued learning about the quest to be first in space. Not only did more than one astronaut travel in a capsule, but astronauts mastered rendezvous, docking, and spacewalking- skills that would be necessary for a lunar mission.
Cadets also spent some time working on Hands on Equations; fourth grade took a quiz on lessons 14-15 and 5th grade covered lesson 23. Both groups are almost finished with their respective Hands On Equation Book, and when we have completed the books,we will be focusing on word problems for the remainder of the year. Fifth grade will also be looking at traditional methods for solving algebra problems to help prepare them for math in middle school.
4th Grade Target Tally- Download Target Tally 2-24
5th Grade Target Tally- Download Target Tally 2-25