Hico Rocket Team Attends Tarleton Engineering Camp
Hico schools sent 15 students and 6 volunteers to the weeklong Tarleton engineering camp. The week was filled with challenging activities like robots, rockets, bridge building and an incredible egg drop of the 7 floor science building. In the second session of the rocket launch, Hico teams placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They dominated the competition. The winning team was Emily Miller, Olivia McGee and Zane Gerber. After an incredibly high flight, they landed their rocket only 30 feet from the launch pad.
The camp was made more accessible to Hico students because of generous sponsorships and because Hico schools provided a bus to and from Stephenville each day. Gary and Marie Brister volunteered to drive the bus and to mentor the camp. “I am so proud of our Hico kids. They really stood out. They were polite, smart and creative. We are building a team of engineers.”, Jeff Gentner said. The volunteers were led by Fernando Fonseco. Fernando was the first to arrive and the last to leave each day. Jasmine Willey, Noemi Gentner and Jeff Gentner also volunteered for the week.
The camp was made more accessible to Hico students because of generous sponsorships and because Hico schools provided a bus to and from Stephenville each day. Gary and Marie Brister volunteered to drive the bus and to mentor the camp. “I am so proud of our Hico kids. They really stood out. They were polite, smart and creative. We are building a team of engineers.”, Jeff Gentner said. The volunteers were led by Fernando Fonseco. Fernando was the first to arrive and the last to leave each day. Jasmine Willey, Noemi Gentner and Jeff Gentner also volunteered for the week.
Another failed launch!
By Reegan Brister: This week at the Hico Rocket Team meeting, we started off by soldering together our launch controller circuit board while some of the other kids worked on our presentation. We will present to the school board on May 21st. After we ran through our presentation a couple of times, we went outside to retry our homemade parachutes that we made out of trash bags. We had previously tried this at the last meeting and it did not work. We tried it again with thinner string. Unfortunately, this parachute did not work either. We are still trying to come up with a better solution to get our parachutes to work.
Rocket Team Builds Launch Controllers
By Grace Booth: Today at our rocket team meeting, we painted our launch control boxes and glued the motor mount into the rocket body. We also glued the fins on the rocket with our team names. We restrung our parachute and tested it. Every team had to pick the color of their launch controller. Team Blast Aways chose silver, Team Smarty Pants chose blue and team I am Rocket chose blue as well. At the next meeting, we will be building our launch controllers.
Rocket Team Tests Parachute
By Reegan Brister
This week at the rocket team meeting, we worked on assembling our rockets. The first thing we did was trying to come up with a way to color our parachutes because we made them out of transparent material. We need to see them in the sky. One of the students came up with the brilliant idea to color them with highlighters. After we finished with the parachutes, we made the rocket engine mount. That is the component that holds the engine so that it doesn’t fly out of the rocket. All we used for that was the engine tube and the engine centering rings. Both of these components were 3D printed. We glued the centering ring to the engine tube and used a paperclip to hold the engine in place. Last, we test launched a rocket with our homemade parachute. It worked, but we will make improvements to the design.
This week at the rocket team meeting, we worked on assembling our rockets. The first thing we did was trying to come up with a way to color our parachutes because we made them out of transparent material. We need to see them in the sky. One of the students came up with the brilliant idea to color them with highlighters. After we finished with the parachutes, we made the rocket engine mount. That is the component that holds the engine so that it doesn’t fly out of the rocket. All we used for that was the engine tube and the engine centering rings. Both of these components were 3D printed. We glued the centering ring to the engine tube and used a paperclip to hold the engine in place. Last, we test launched a rocket with our homemade parachute. It worked, but we will make improvements to the design.
Rocket Team Builds Parachutes
By: Grace Booth
To start off our rocket team meeting, we weighed our cones for our rockets. Then, we took our weights and put them in the rocket simulator. For team Smarty Pants, the weight for their rocket is 414 grams with a parachute size of 67 centimeters. Team Blast Away’s rockets weighs 185 grams with a parachute size of 45 centimeters. Next, we cut up some trash bags to make our parachutes. Jordan Voges measured out the size of the parachute. Then we painted the rocket cones. Finally, we wrapped up the meeting by planning our activities for our next meeting.
3D Design and Printed Fidget Spinners!
The Hico Rocket Team 3D printed fidget spinners. Each of the students 3D designed their own fidget spinner and then the team printed them out on the school’s 3D printer. The printer uses PLA plastic to create parts. At the center, a bearing was used with quarters for the outside weights. With the 3D design skills learned by the students, they finished the design on their 3 rockets. The next meeting will be on March 22nd when the teams will begin assembly of the rockets.
Testing new technology
The Hico Rocket Team met and continued to design their 3D printed rockets. The 3 teams designed the motor mount, centering rings and the launch lug. All of the parts will be 3D printed on the high school's Ultimaker 2 printer. The teams also selected the color schemes for the rockets. Finally, the teams tested Reegan Brister’s idea of adding a Tile tracker to the rockets. They tested the technology. The Tile tracker was hidden 5 times and successfully found each time. They will adopt Reegan’s idea into the rockets. All of the testing and development is leading up to the annual rocket launch in May.
3D printing rocket parts.
Designing Fidget Spinners and Rocket Camera Test
Rocket Team Flies a Drone!
At our last rocket club meeting, we 3D designed fidget spinners, but we sadly ran out of time. We had to leave because Mr. Gentner had a little surprise for us. One of our challenges is to install video cameras into our rockets. Mr. Gentner brought Jarred Sumpter in as a special guest. Mr. Sumpter has a drone. We attached the video camera to the drone and took it for a test flight. To see the video we took, visit HicoScience.com.
The following Thursday, we finished our fidget spinner design & got ready to 3D print. We got to choose how many arms we wanted to have. I chose 4 arms. Someone put 9,000 arms and it shut down the program! Landen Ince made a throwing star fidget spinner. Over the Christmas break, our fidget spinners will be 3D printed. We will continue to build rockets and learn more science!
The following Thursday, we finished our fidget spinner design & got ready to 3D print. We got to choose how many arms we wanted to have. I chose 4 arms. Someone put 9,000 arms and it shut down the program! Landen Ince made a throwing star fidget spinner. Over the Christmas break, our fidget spinners will be 3D printed. We will continue to build rockets and learn more science!
Rocket Designs, Challenges and Shirt Designs are Final!
By Reegan Brister:
This week at Hico Rocket Club we came up with what our challenges are to make our rocket around. The challenges include having a horizontal camera built inside the rocket, a vertical camera, putting an egg inside your rocket and seeing if your egg survives, shooting a parachuting man up with your rocket, and putting crickets in your rocket. The following teams' challenges are "Smarty Pants" which include Harley, Breeana, Olivia, and Emily; which are doing the egg drop. Then we have "The Blast Aways" which include Reegan, Landen, Grace, and Kirsten, which are doing a horizontal camera. Finally we have the "I Am a Rocket" team, which include Kellin, Michael, and Raiden. We also worked on designing our rockets that we will soon 3D print.
By Grace Booth:
In this week's Hico Rocket Club, we went on the shirt websites to vote for what our shirts were gonna look like. After that we went on this rocket website, and started going over the processes of how to make our rockets. Next we went over the ideas for what to put in our rocket. There is a vertical camera, horizontal camera, launching an egg, launching crickets, and a camera inside. Finally, we went outside and launched some rockets we made about a month ago. The next Rocket Club meeting we will start the process of making rockets, and also get our shirts. We will continue learning science, and have fun!
This week at Hico Rocket Club we came up with what our challenges are to make our rocket around. The challenges include having a horizontal camera built inside the rocket, a vertical camera, putting an egg inside your rocket and seeing if your egg survives, shooting a parachuting man up with your rocket, and putting crickets in your rocket. The following teams' challenges are "Smarty Pants" which include Harley, Breeana, Olivia, and Emily; which are doing the egg drop. Then we have "The Blast Aways" which include Reegan, Landen, Grace, and Kirsten, which are doing a horizontal camera. Finally we have the "I Am a Rocket" team, which include Kellin, Michael, and Raiden. We also worked on designing our rockets that we will soon 3D print.
By Grace Booth:
In this week's Hico Rocket Club, we went on the shirt websites to vote for what our shirts were gonna look like. After that we went on this rocket website, and started going over the processes of how to make our rockets. Next we went over the ideas for what to put in our rocket. There is a vertical camera, horizontal camera, launching an egg, launching crickets, and a camera inside. Finally, we went outside and launched some rockets we made about a month ago. The next Rocket Club meeting we will start the process of making rockets, and also get our shirts. We will continue learning science, and have fun!
Vote for your favorite shirt!
Design This Year's T-Shirt!
This year, anyone can design a T-Shirt. After all of the designs are submitted, we will vote on the winning design. To design a shirt:
- Go to CustomInk.com.
- Select "Design Lab"
- Create your design for the front and the back
- Select the shirt color
- Press "SAVE/SEND"
Save the design with the email address "shirtDesign@hicoscience.com"
Rocket Launch!
By: Reegan Brister
This week at the Hico Rocket Club, the three different groups were all given a different model rocket to build. One was really skinny that was made for speed. Another one was really long and wide and made for height. The last one was really round and made for distance. The skinny one was the only rocket that successfully launched and landed unharmed. The other two launched but their parachutes didn't deploy so they crashed. Since the small one made it on the first launch we put a bigger engine in it. The second launch, it didn't get so lucky when it came back down. Two of the fins had come off. What we learned is that it's not always better to have more power. Also, we talked about designing t-shirts.
This week at the Hico Rocket Club, the three different groups were all given a different model rocket to build. One was really skinny that was made for speed. Another one was really long and wide and made for height. The last one was really round and made for distance. The skinny one was the only rocket that successfully launched and landed unharmed. The other two launched but their parachutes didn't deploy so they crashed. Since the small one made it on the first launch we put a bigger engine in it. The second launch, it didn't get so lucky when it came back down. Two of the fins had come off. What we learned is that it's not always better to have more power. Also, we talked about designing t-shirts.
First Rocket Team Meeting
Hico Rocket Team Has First Meeting
By Grace Booth
The Hico Rocket Team is run by Ms. Parker, Mr. Gilliland and Mr. Gentner. At the Hico Rocket Team, we elected officers and made rockets out of trash! The officers are Grace Booth (president), Reegan Brister (vice-president) and Olivia McGee (director of communication). When we made rockets out of trash, it was fun because we got to challenge our brain and see what we could come up with. The rockets didn’t go very far, but they went up in the air. In our next Hico Rocket Team meeting, we are going to do the same thing and try to do things different on our rockets.
Our next meeting will be October the 12th.
By Grace Booth
The Hico Rocket Team is run by Ms. Parker, Mr. Gilliland and Mr. Gentner. At the Hico Rocket Team, we elected officers and made rockets out of trash! The officers are Grace Booth (president), Reegan Brister (vice-president) and Olivia McGee (director of communication). When we made rockets out of trash, it was fun because we got to challenge our brain and see what we could come up with. The rockets didn’t go very far, but they went up in the air. In our next Hico Rocket Team meeting, we are going to do the same thing and try to do things different on our rockets.
Our next meeting will be October the 12th.
The Hico Rocket Team is available to 6th graders as participants and 7th-12th graders as mentors. We will have up to 4 teams with 4 participants per team. Mentors will be assigned to a team as a team leader.
We will meet throughout the year. Meetings will be after school. We will learn about 3D design, 3D printing, circuit design and rocket construction. We will conclude the year with a day full of rocket launches.
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Design
Using Fusion 360 software, each team will design an enclosure for their launch controller. We will learn to take the dimensions of the electronic components and draw them in a 3D environment. |
Print
Hico Schools has a cutting edge Ultimaker2 Extended printer. The Hico Rocket Team has access to the printer to build components for the launch controller. Objects that we draw in Fusion 360 will be printed out!
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Circuit Design
We will design and build a circuit to test the launch igniter, start the countdown timer and launch the rocket.
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