Rocket project teaches, amuses students
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Patience. A steady hand. And more patience.

Cascade Brook schoolchildren said that’s what it took to build model rockets that will fly.

Children worked quietly Tuesday to complete their rockets in anticipation of launching them 800 to 900 feet in the air come 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, at Prescott Field.

Sara Turner of Farmington used her finger to spread white glue on a small piece of wood, as she reinforced the fins on the Super Bird Rocket.

“It’s been hard, kind of,” she said. “The fins keep falling off.”

The fourth-grader worked at a table with fellow students Tuesday in the cafeteria after school.

Their work was in all different stages.

Some cut out parachutes from yellow, red and white designed plastic. Others had already done that and were threading string through reinforced holes in the plastic.

Turner said she was thinking about painting hers blue, red and purple. That part would be done at home.

John David Evans of New Sharon touched a piece of wire sticking out of the bottom of his rocket. He made sure it lined up with the launch lug.

“You have to make it perfectly straight with the launch lug or it won’t take off right,” Evans said. “It’s been very exciting. I can’t wait to launch it. The fins have been very difficult. You have to be very patient. It takes a lot of patience.”

Over on the other side of the room, Tali Greaton of Farmington cut out his second parachute. One would be attached to a black nose cone and the other to the rocket so it would come down gently.

“We have had to wait a long time just to launch rockets,” he said.

Cascade Brook School teachers Rick Hardy and Sheryl Farnum have coached the children for four weeks after school on their project.

“It’s really been a lot of fun,” Farnum said.

Ashlie Hardy of Farmington said she hoped hers “didn’t blow up” when she launches it.

Her side of the room was building Courier Rockets. At 22 inches those are a couple inches shorter than the Super rocket, and it would go a 100 feet higher, Hardy said.

“The smaller the rocket, the higher it will go,” she said.

Jesse Williams knelt on the floor so he was eye level to a piece of plastic he was trying to thread a piece of string through.

“It’s frustrating sometimes,” Williams said, as he tried again to make a loop in the string.

A battery remote control will be used to launch the rockets from a tripod.

There will be a lot of supervision and a countdown when the children push the launch button, Farnum said.

“The most exciting part hasn’t happened yet,” fifth-grader Griffin Conlogue of Farmington said while cutting out a parachute.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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