NUACS students in grades 3-8 were required to design and build bottle rockets. The high school students were not required to build rockets but were allowed to participate if they wanted. Many did want to build rockets.

The only requirements were the bottles had to be at least two liters and filled with two cups of water. From there, students had the freedom to design their rockets in any way they wanted. Some even chose to build bottle rockets that exceeded two liters.

The goal was to see which rocket traveled the furthest. The high school students all competed against each other. Grades 3-8 competed separately.

The students competed in three rounds. In the first round, all rockets in the grade were fired, and the six farthest flying rockets moved on to the second round. In the second round, the three farthest flying rockets were chosen for the final championship round.

Jayden Helget and Owen Strei were awarded the Cathedral High School rocket competition trophy. Their rocket, named “Zachary” traveled the furthest in the high school division. L to R: 3M maintenance specialist Josh Abraham, Jayden Helget, Owen Strei and 3M Engineer Supervisor Joseph Ibberson.

The rocket program was held in collaboration with 3M as part of the company’s STEM outreach. The pneumatic launching system was built by 3M maintenance specialist Josh Abraham. He was joined by another 3M staff, Jason Krengel, and 3M Engineer Supervisor Joseph Ibberson. The trio provided field support for the students, giving them advice and suggestions for a better flight.

All three agreed the secret to designing a far-flying rocket was to give a balanced center of gravity and a center of pressure. If the rocket is off balance, it would veer off in the wrong direction or fall too quickly.

Ibberson and Abraham said the rockets with more weight in the nose tended to go further. The farthest-flying rockets tended to have heavier nose cones.

Ideally, the rocket would have limited air drag. If the rocket wings were curved right, the rocket would spiral similarly to a football.

This year, the student rocket scientists had to contend with the weather. It rained off and on throughout the morning, reducing the performance of some rockets. The harder the rain, the shorter the flight.

The rocket launch took place on the Washington Park tennis court. The rockets were fired at 45-degree angles over the baseball field. Cones were placed at 25-yard intervals to mark off progress. A quarter of all rockets failed to make it over the tennis court fence, but several made it to the 50-and 75-yard cone.

The farthest a rocket traveled was around 117 yards. The rocket was built by fourth graders Jack Peterson and Colton LeBrun. The rocket shot over the park and landed on 8th St. North. The rocket had three fins and a rounded nose cone.

Peterson and LeBrun set the record for the day; however, their rocket could not consistently reach this distance. Having reached 117 yards on its first flight, it only managed around 75 yards on subsequent flights. It is likely the initial street landing damaged the nose cone.

A similar problem happened on the second launch for Eli Zimmerman and Ethan Weisberich. The two 4th graders’ rocket made it nearly 100 yards, but a fin broke off, requiring repairs.

Ultimately, Kinley Berdan and Leah Franta won the fourth-grade rocket division with their “shark” rocket, which remained intact for all three flights and consistently achieved 75 yards.

In the high school competition, Owen Strei and Jaden Helget were the team to beat. The two 10th-graders won the high school rocket competition last year with a lawn dart-shaped rocket with a pencil for a nose cone.

Strei and Helget brought the same rocket back this year to compete but replaced the pencil with a pen. After Helget applied an ample amount of duct tape to the pen, it was ready to fly and once again was the top performer. Since the tip was a pen, it was sharp enough to stick in the ground when it landed. This prevents the rocket from sustaining significant damage, allowing it to fly again.

Cathedral High Computer Science teacher Chelsey Mason coordinated the rocket launch competition and was pleased with the results. She said there was a benefit of bringing the program back each year because it allows the students to learn and improve each year. Students are able to problem-solve and improve on last year’s rockets.

Mason’s only regret was the rain, but said the kids did not seem to mind it.

The 3M volunteers felt the rain helped replicate real-world problems. The students needed to adjust to the situation. Ibberson said the rain was an obstacle, but last year the students had to deal with high winds. There are always obstacles.

Overall, the 3M volunteers were happy with the rocket launches. The goal of the program was to introduce science and engineering concepts to students.

“We want to make science fun,” Ibberson said. “It is a lot of fun to do.”

He added that since 3M has the pneumatic launching device built, they could easily use it with other schools in the area if they wished to participate.

“We would love to get the other schools involved,” Ibberson said.