Woodside School Launches New Fifth Grade SAGE Project

On December 12, 2003 approximately 20 rockets were launched on the field at Woodside School in commemoration of the Centennial of Flight. This was also the launching of a new collaborative effort between Mrs. Meryl Wolf, the SAGE teacher at Woodside, and Mr.William Koenig, a physics teacher at Pascack Valley Regional High School. In November, teams of four or five students in the fifth grade classes began work on their bottle rockets with Mrs. Wolf. They measured their circumference, divided that in thirds, and drew three plum lines on the bottles, which would later be covered with tape. Then they were ready for the fun part, spray painting their bottles. Meanwhile they also cut out three fins and a cone. On a cold December day they were ready to work with senior physics students from Pascack Valley Regional High School to complete their rockets. After sanding the bottle where the fins would be placed, and armed with glue guns, they attached the fins. Other students painted tubes to be attached on top. Once the rockets were named and finished they predicted how high they would fly. The highest rocket went 340 feet into the air, several landed on the roof of the school, and a few exploded partially due to the cold temperatures which made the plastic bottles very brittle. Aside from the obvious thrill of creating rockets and seeing them fly, there was a bonding between students. The high school students enjoyed assisting the younger students and got very close to the team members they had just spent a couple of hours with. The fifth graders had roll models to look up to; this was especially important for the girls to see female science students building rockets. Everyone had an out-of-this-world experience!