Blastoff! Upper School Engineering Students Race Self-Built Rocket Cars

Students will compile reports analyzing their final rocket car, recording the data from race day, and reflecting on lessons learned and possible adjustments they would make.
Combining engineering elements like vehicle stability, aerodynamics and rocket propulsion, Upper School introduction to engineering students were tasked with designing a rocket car from scratch. Their creations were then put to the test, raced along a 100-foot stretch of corridor adjacent to Pasternack Field House.

Students had to design and construct a body, four wheels and a parachute, with the option of fins, wings and spoilers. The requirements were lax—the body, for example, could be made out of foam, wood or cardboard, with or without an internal frame, so long as it could hold a rocket engine. Wheels could be made of plastic, wood or rubber.

“The rocket car project was an almost completely open-ended design problem,” engineering teacher Eric Trumbauer said. “The primary goal I wanted them to learn was the process of integrating various smaller engineering challenges into a single vehicle.”

Over the course of two weeks, the rocket cars were built using traditional tools like drills and hacksaws but also high-tech options such as a 3D printer. The unique designs ranged from one that looks like a carrot (and decorated accordingly) to one that resembles a traditional rocket firework with wheels.

The students put their cars to the test this week.  They will compile reports analyzing their final rocket car, recording the data from race day, and reflecting on lessons learned and possible adjustments they would make.

Dr. Trumbauer, who teaches three engineering classes and AP physics in the Upper School, also brought current events into the rocket-car engineering unit. The classes discussed the ongoing Bloodhound SSC project, in which a British supersonic vehicle powered by a rocket engine is being developed. Once completed, it will attempt to exceed 1,000 miles per hour for a new land speed world record. 
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