Jimmy Good Toad's Hobbies page

	Boys and Girls Clubs
	of Greater Nashua

2008 Fall Session - Rocketry Class

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This class is scheduled over 7 weeks but we have Columbus Day weekend in the middle of the set so there are actually only 6 weeks of this class that we meet. We meet on Monday's and my thought is there is no better way to make Monday's something to look forward to than to make it a fishing day!

This is my largest class, with 12 kids signed up. Imagine going to the waterfront with 12 kids, most of whom have little or no fishing experience, casting, baiting and otherwise burning off some energy and you have an idea of what this can be like. I long ago discovered that I can not fish during this class as I spend most of my time fixing equipment, untangling lines, baiting hooks and releasing fish.

What I am most thrilled about is discovering (with every class) how many kids are catching fish for the very first time. It's a wonderful sight!

Jake, one of my helpers, cuts up in front of the camera as the class works on their first rocket. I have concurrent beginner and advanced classes with the beginners building the Whatchamacallit kit while the advanced kids build the Morning Star kit.

Many of the beginners are being exposed to rocketry for the very first time with this class

While some have built over 6 kits with me to date and are entering the advanced class for the very first time. Much more responsibility here as I do not take them through the instructions. Rather I instruct them to "begin building" as they follow the instructions themselves and call me when/if they have a problem. By the time they have finished a years worth of advanced classes (3 in all) they will be able to build most any kit on their own.

While waiting for a part to dry, the kids often look over the catalog or copies of LAUNCH magazine that I give out.

Learning how to draw straight lines on a round tube is a real eye opener for these kids the first time. There is a real "wow" factor with this step for them.

Checking for straight fins on the Morning Star.

Here the kids learn how to WAIT as fins dry. A frustrating but important part of advanced rocket building.

On the field, the beginners show off their Whatchamacallit kits!

They love the attention of the camers!

Loading rockets for the first time for most of these kids. The young boy on the right has flown several times already though.

I always get a posed picture of the kids with their rockets on the pad!

Perfect flights on 1/2A motors. It was a great launch day!

Hard to get these little guys in the camera, but I did pretty good!

Two more ready to go! I missed the launch shots though...

This young man brought a scratch built he made from toilette paper tubes. It flew well and I showed him how to improve the design. It is my hope that he brings it back for another flight!

On to the Morning Star flights!

While I had no problem getting these static shots, I didn't get a single launch photo of a Morning Star. We flew them on B6-4 motors (with an adapter) to keep them inside our small field.

We got perfect flights and recovery on all models!

He wanted one more flight when mom and dad showed up so that they could watch it go!

Last flights of the day. Next week is lecture and then we begin the 2nd kit for the session!

Now on to our second rocket!
OverDrive for the beginners and Long OverDue for the advanced class.

Assembling the streamer, we're well on our way to completion of the OverDrive model rocket kit.

One of our first tasks is to get a couple of fins attached early in the class so that they have time to dry. The main thing the kids are learning with this rocket, along with learning how adhesives work and how to align a fin, is the patience needed when attaching fins without a jig to hold them on.

I'd normally say "there's one in every crowd", but it seems I have two....

The advanced class shows up half way through the beginner class (each class is 2 hours long and we overlap one hour for a total of 3 hours for both combined). They are building the Long OverDue and are learning the art of cutting body tubes.

The advanced class is great because I can pretty much hand them a kit and the tools and say "get started" while I put my attention back on the beginners. If they are IN the advanced class they should be able to assemble most rockets with minimal instruction. I make a point of working closely with them when learning new tasks such as cutting body tubes as in the Long OverDue.

And what a great job these kids did with the tube cutting too! This is the FIRST time any of these kids ever cut a tube and they should be proud of the job they did. Good work!

Nearing the end of class everyone begins cleaning up and putting away their partially built kits, materials and all tools. We then do a thorough clean up, leaving the classroom cleaner than when we arrived. This is important if you want the teachers to continue to let you use their classrooms.

Our 2nd and last building week we concentrate on getting the remainder of the fins glued to the OverDrive. While they dry we work on our recovery device (streamer in this case)

We only had one of the advanced kids able to stay for the full session. The others will be brining their models home to finish. Here he has finished his BT-60 cutting (last week) and begins cutting the BT-20 tubes.

In this class I had two helpers (older students who have been through my entire beginner and advanced programs) who come back to this school to help with my program. In this particular class everyone worked so well on their own that there was little for them to do. But they sure came in handy when it came time to clean up afterwards! That's Jake there in the lower left.

Getting the finishing touches on the OverDrive.

Tube fins all cut and attached to the bottom part of the Long OverDue. Looking great!

A close up shows how well this model is coming out. Less than a year ago this boy could not have done this well on such a different type of rocket. Building 6 simpler kits, with detailed instructing has helped him to learn so many of the basic skills needed. And it shows here.

Jake got bored so I kept him busy with brain teasers.

Gluing on the launch lug to complete his Long OverDue!

DONE! Now he's *almost* ready to fly. He still has to bring his model home and get it painted for the launch next week.

Next week we launch!