Danville Elementary School Launch!

One of three very excited groups of kids ready to launch their Triskelion rockets!

The last launch of the season is always bitter-sweet.   But performing that launch with over 75 excited elementary school children is just too cool for words!

This photo album is from a recent launch (November 2005) with 78 students from the Danville Elementary School in Danville, NH.   Earlier (October) I visited with the students and explained model rocketry as well as many historical aspects of the manned and unmanned space program.

This is to prepare them for what was coming.  The building of their very own flying model rocket!  Having worked with these teachers on several occasions in the past, they were well versed on the construction of basic model rockets, so they hosted the build sessions themselves.  I didn't return until after the rockets were completed and rendered "Flight Worthy".

We had to cancel our first launch date due to rain and the second selected date didn't look that good either.  On the morning of the scheduled launch we made the call "Go For Launch!" and I headed out to school (man, I love this job! :) ).

I walked through the school only to be met by every teacher and every student "You must be the rocket guy!".  The front office even put "Rocket Man" on my volunteer name tag.

I got everything set up and the first of three classes came out, rockets ready.  We spent the day launching, with a short break for lunch.   Ever student got to fly their rockets and only 1 was lost!  There were a few mishaps with rockets that didn't have their engine mounts glued in securely or fins not on quite tight enough.  However the beauty of these classes and these kits is that the children BUILT the engine mount and ATTACHED the fins in the first place.  It was clear that they knew how do to it, learned a lesson in the field and can and will repair their models correcting their original mistakes.

Son of a gun.  They LEARNED something!

The photo album to the left shows the pictures that I was able to take that day.  Not very many launch shots as it was so overcast that I did not have good light for pictures.  Please Note: The first class is in Yellow, the second class is in Green and the last class is in Blue.  I didn't get the entire last class as my camera batteries died before we were done (sorry!)

Enjoy!  To see a full size image just click on the smaller thumbnail provided.  Full size pictures can be obtained by contacting me directly at this email address.

jim