You will need the following items for your rocket experiment:
- Alka-Seltzer tablets (one for each student)
- Water
- Large watering can
- 35 mm film container for each student
- Sunglasses
- Notebooks
- Pencils
- Nice Day
Follow the directions below to complete your rocket experiment:
- Send a note home to the student's parents about a week before you schedule the project. Request that each student bring a film canister and a pair of sunglasses to school. The canister is for the rocket and the sunglasses for them to look into the bright, sunny, sky at their rocket. Purchase the rest of the materials to prepare.
- Choose a nice day to perform the experiment, since it is an outdoor experiment.
- Take the necessary items outside and find a level place to conduct the experiment.
- Have each child stand in a row with their sunglasses on and their canisters in hand.
- Give each child one half of an Alka-Seltzer tablet.
- Have the children use the watering can to fill 1/3 of their film canister with water. They can pass it down the line. Make sure they all wait until every one has filled their film canisters with water to do the experiment at the same time.
- Give them the instructions and make sure they know they need to act fast. Tell them to quickly plop the Alka-Seltzer tablet in to the film canister and put the lid on. Then make sure that they can quickly put the canister down and take a few steps back. You may need to model and practice this several times before conducting the experiment.
- Watch to see what happens. All of a sudden the film canisters are going to take off and shoot very high up into the sky.
- After the children calm down, have them help you gather all of the supplies and head back to the classroom.
- Have the children get out their notebooks and write a description of how they conducted the experiment and what happened. Ask them why they think the film canisters shot up into the air like rockets. Explain that the Alka-Seltzer was giving off gas as it interacted with the water. Ask them where the gas could go since it was bottled up. The gas began to create pressure against the sides of the film canister until the film canister couldn't hold it anymore. It then had to escape by popping the lid off of the film canister.
