Newton's Laws and Rocketry

Newton's Laws and Rocketry Poster

Lesson Plans
  • The poster shown above depicts Newton’s laws and a variety of demos and labs that I use in my classroom to teach those concepts.  It also focuses on our rocketry lab, showing examples of rockets that students have made and the rocket launcher designed by Cameron Chen, a graduate student at Montana State University. 
  • These activities help students to better understand Newton’s Laws and provide them with the type of science inquiry that develops good research skills.  Here are some examples of questions that arise.
    • Why did the rocket that was full of water or too weighted down barely take off?
      •  It was too heavy or massive. This can be explained with Newton's first law of motion:  A body at rest tends to remain at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.
    • The rocket didn't have enough "oomph" (force) to make it take off. Why?
      • There was not enough force for the mass. The more mass it has, the less it will accelerate using the same force. This can be explained using Newton's second law of motion:  Force equals Mass times Acceleration. 
    • Why did the water go one way and the rocket the other?
      • There is an equal force in both directions. This can be explained by Newton's third law of motion:  For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.
  • I have developed a booklet which includes all of these activities.  You can access these activities on this website or check out the rocketry box from MSU.  This box includes a rocket launcher and everythying you need to complete the activities. (send e-mail to Suzie Flentie to inquire about checking out rocketry box

To View Movies of rocket launching and match rocket lab:

Rocket Movie 1     Rocket Movie 2    Match Rocket Movie

Rocket launching
rocket launching