Rocketry Planet

LAKEWOOD, Ohio USA — An interest in rocketry appears to have taken off for some of the district’s middle school and high school students. Two teams at Harding Middle School and one at the high school participated in this year’s Team America Rocketry Challenge, a national contest for grades 7-12, the world’s largest rocket contest, sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry.

Team members from one of Harding's TARC teams get ready for a launch.

Teams in the contest must design, build and fly a model rocket that reaches a specified altitude and flight duration. The parameters for the contest change each year. This year the rockets had to reach 750 feet and stay airborne for 40-45 seconds. But there’s a twist….the rocket must carry a payload of one egg and land with the egg completely intact (no cracks). The top 100 teams that meet the qualification standards are invited to compete at the national finals in Washington, D.C., in July.

This year, Harding’s two teams both met the qualification standards, but unfortunately, did not crack the top 100 scores. LHS’ team, which was operating for the first time this year, didn’t make qualification. Nonetheless, the teams learned valuable experience in practical application of math and science.

The teams and their advisers, Ann Pesta at Harding and Bob Sedlak at LHS, spent a few Saturdays out in the cornfields of Amherst or Middlefield – sites where rocket launching is permitted – testing their rockets out so that they knew what needed to be tinkered with for their qualifying launch. The teams also received guidance from Pat Easter of Lakewood, an NAR mentor who oversaw the launches.

Copyright © 2011, The Lakewood Observer.