DVD: Rocketry Fundamentals

This DVD was videotaped at a graduate course I presented for the Space Foundation as part of their summer institute course “Rocketry and the Biology of Living in Space, Space History, and Space Law.”

The purpose of my particular presentation was to give teachers a strong foundation in rocketry, so that they could be ready to take it back to their classrooms. There was particular emphasis on rocket propulsion and rocketry stability. In the rocket propulsion discussion, we talked about the physics - how rockets produce thrust, the types of propellants used in model rocketry, characteristics of high and low thrust motors, the nomenclature for rocket motors, the thrust curve, and how to select the best motor for a model rocket.

The video is 1 hour 20 minutes long, and is the lead-in to my beginner's guide to using the RockSim software. I wanted to make sure teachers knew the fundamentals of rocketry, so that they could appreciate how in-depth RockSim is at taking into account the real-world variables that affect the performance of a rocket. The teachers had a great sense of what RockSim would be able to do for them in their classrooms.

The educational content on this video is awesome – I don't know of anything that is better. You'll really learn a lot about rocketry in a very short amount of time. Even if you've been in rocketry for years, I guarantee that you'll learn something new. Unfortunately, the video production is not perfect (we're rocketeers, not professional cameramen…). Basically, the video camera could not compensate for the brightness of the video screen while keeping the instructor in the frame too. Because of this, I will include the terrific power-point presentation file that was used in the classroom. This is a $10 value, absolutely free!

Here is an outline of what is presented on the DVD:

1. Introduction: Who Am I? Why is this relevant to teaching with model rockets?
2. Basics of Rocketry
   1. What is Rocketry?
   2. Parts of a Model Rocket
3. Rocket Propulsion
   1. Newton's 2nd Law of Motion
   2. Types of Propellant
   3. Rocket Engine Classification System
   4. Which Engine is Best?
4. Flight of a Rocket: Aerodynamics
   1. Four Forces on a Rocket (Lift, Drag, Thrust, Gravity)
   2. How To Fly Faster?
   3. How to Fly Higher?
   4. How to Fly Straighter
5. Stability of A Rocket
   1. Center of Gravity and Center of Pressure
   2. Static Stability
   3. Dynamic Stability

Typically, at the end of the presentation, I would usually walk the students through the basics of how to use the RockSim software. To be honest, we ran out of video tape at this point; as we didn't expect the teachers to ask so many great questions.

But learning RockSim is easy. There are excellent training videos on how to use RockSim on each trial-version CD-ROM that we send out. You can watch them at your leisure, and soon you'll be a master at using the software and designing your own rockets. We'll even include a trial version of the RockSim software so you'll have these how-to videos.

Tip: If you can't wait to view the RockSim help videos, you can download the RS-PRO tutorials right now, since they are similar to the RockSim videos. Click here for more information.

If you're a teacher that wants to use rocketry in the classroom, I urge you to get this product today. This is graduate-school level information material, but at a tiny fraction of the price you'd have to pay to see it live. You'll be so prepared for your rocketry unit that you'll be wanting to teach it today instead of next week. Go ahead and click the "Add to Cart" button at the top of this page.

About the Space Foundation's Summer Institute

The Summer Institute is comprised of five week-long graduate-level courses designed to help educators use space themes in their classrooms to enable improved student performance in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subject areas. The week-long courses for educators are held on the Colorado Springs campus of Regis University. In addition to gaining invaluable experience and increasing their knowledge base, participating teachers can earn continuing education credits, graduate credits, or work toward a master's degree with a space studies science emphasis. Apogee Components has been asked by the Space Foundation to perform our rocketry session again next summer (2008) because of the overwhelming positive comments they received about it from the teachers in attendance.

For more information click here.