Grade 8 Rocket-Science: Students Shoot for the Moon in Community Building STEM Activity

Recognition was awarded to teams who brought individual personality to their rocket designs, the most creative rocket name and the highest altitude achieved at launch. Acting as judges, Teachers Sanj Maliakal and Fraser Randolph agreed that the results were very strong across the board with 99% launch success and a wide variety of unique designs. 

“The students exceeded our expectations with their original thinking and individualized approaches to the activity,” said Upper School Science Teacher Maliakal.

Rocket names that impressed the judges included an entry created by the team of Michaela Springer, Marcus Ortiz and Lily Arneill called “Little Einsteins,” a sly reference to the theme song lyrics of a popular children’s cartoon which go, in part: “We’re going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, Little Einsteins…” The winner however was called The #1 Pencil and was submitted by the team of Lillian Kanter, Maggie Newport, Liany Otero, and Camila Calderwood. 

Individual personality was interpreted and executed in many ways, including artistic decorations on the rockets, surprises, and even performance art. The team of Michael Bria, James DiBiasio and Nico Bennet, sang an original song during the launch of their rocket, which earned marks for outside-the-box thinking from the judges. Another entry was built to shower confetti upon those on the ground, but experienced failure to launch difficulties.

Winner of the highest altitude contest was the team of James Moody and Myles LeConey. Their entry, “The Rocket” soared to approximately 150 feet over the athletic fields. Fourth grade students who flocked to the playground hillside adjacent to the field cheered each launch and sang along enthusiastically to Katy Perry’s “Firework” and other rocket themed music playing on the loudspeaker.

“These outstanding results are a testament to the consistent emphasis on three of our school’s core values – courage, curiosity and community: the courage to be a risk-taker and mistake-maker while applying scientific knowledge to real life experiments, the curiosity to learn and grow in the STEM disciplines, and the ability to collaborate effectively within a community of peers while maintaining original ideas and a sense of self,” said Grade 8 Dean Lacey Ramsey who helped facilitate the 3-day program together with grade-level teachers and advisors.