Seventh-grade Science Students Aim for the Moon

Submitted by david.thacker on
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In Mr. Whiting's 7th grade science classes, the students designed and built Lunar Landers. 

On Monday, August 26th, students started making their Landers. The experiment was seeing if they could make a Lunar Lander using a Dixie cup and a golf ball. Students had to put the golf ball in a Dixie cup and drop it off the roof. The materials provided were straws, rubber bands, Elmer’s glue, toothpicks, and tape. 

They also had to follow two rules which were, you can’t cover the top and you can’t change the shape of the cup. In addition to those rules and materials, students could bring any materials they wanted or needed from home to build their Landers. 

Students had a couple days to work on their Landers. On Wednesday, students put their creations into a big, black garbage bag and went outside to the gym doors, and waited for Mr. Whiting to get on the roof. He took one Lunar Lander out of the bag and timed how long it took to fall. Students wrote their times on a piece of paper. Almost all of the golf balls bounced or rolled out of the cup. 

One in particular worked, a group of boys had built a very interesting design that allowed the air to move in and out of their parachute. Mr. Whiting told everyone that they would have a second chance to add or make changes to their landers. Everyone’s mind was racing with ideas for their next Lunar Lander.

 

Attributions
By Eden Erickson (student)