Students investigate how engineers use physics to predict, explain, and improve a successful rocket launch through a sequence of hands-on motion, force, momentum, and energy studies. They gather and analyze real data, build mathematical and graphical models, and apply those models to design, test, and refine a rocket and recovery system that meets clear constraints. Along the way, they learn from teachers and engineering partners, reflect on findings from other classes, and document their reasoning in engineering notebooks and portfolios. The experience culminates in public rocket launches and presentations that show how evidence, revision, and scientific thinking shaped their final product.

Students will analyze one- and two-dimensional motion using data tables, graphs, vector models, and equations to explain and predict rocket flight. They will investigate how net force, mass, and acceleration are related by designing and analyzing a controlled force–mass experiment, and they will use mathematical representations to justify when momentum is conserved in a defined system. Students will design, build, test, and refine a rocket recovery or energy-conversion device that meets clear criteria and constraints, using evidence from launches, simulations, and peer critique. They will communicate their reasoning through engineering notebooks, portfolio artifacts, and launch analysis that compares predictions, observations, uncertainty, and next design steps.

Students will produce investigation artifacts throughout the unit, including motion data tables, position/velocity graphs, free-body diagrams, vector models, force-mass-acceleration analysis, momentum system calculations, and energy-flow models in their engineering notebooks and portfolios. Teams will create and refine a rocket and recovery device, supported by design sketches, test records, simulation comparisons, and revision notes developed with feedback from engineers, teachers, and peer critique sessions. Final products will include a launched rocket, a complete engineering portfolio with evidence for HS-PS2-1, HS-PS2-2, and HS-PS3-3, and a short documentary or presentation that explains predictions, test results, failures, revisions, and final performance. These products will be prepared for public exhibition through launch day displays, student product showcases, and digital sharing with the CAT community and social media audiences.

Start with a live model rocket launch featuring a 2000 ft target and parachute recovery, supported by engineers and teachers who narrate the design choices but do not explain the full physics. Have students record only what they observe, then work in teams to generate initial models of the rocket’s motion, forces, energy changes, and recovery system, including what data they would need to measure to predict a successful launch. Follow with a short gallery walk of team ideas and a 35-minute cross-class reflection in which students compare what other classes noticed and identify questions to investigate next. Close by introducing the challenge: build evidence through force, momentum, and energy investigations, then apply that evidence to a rocket design, launch, portfolio, and public exhibition.

Host a public launch and analysis night where teams present their rockets, recovery devices, and engineering portfolios to engineers, teachers, families, and the CAT community. Each team should share launch footage, predicted vs. actual motion data, force and momentum evidence, and how they refined their design after critique and initial testing. Add a gallery walk with student products, notebooks, and short documentaries, then publish highlights and data stories through school social media or a community showcase page. Include individual explanation checkpoints during the exhibition so every student communicates the physics behind the final design, not just the build.