C

This week we did a balloon rockets.  The kids were given a limited supply of construction paper, string, tape, paper clips, straws, and coffee stirrers.  They were required to make a support for a blown up balloon that would attach to a straw on a taught string.  The balloon rocket was then supposed to travel along the taught string from one chair to another.  The activity worked fairly well.  Initially we were not going to allow the students to tape the rockets to the straw, but it turned out that the challenge was a little too difficult for them, so we allowed them to tape the rockets to the straw.  Since we allowed taping the rockets to the straw, it would have worked better if we had just given them the straw and reattached the straw to string.  The activity ended up being a little longer than we thought it would, with only about half the students making the first distance and none making the extend distance.  All would have probably make the initial distance with about 15 more minutes or so.  Next week the activity is a little short, so we plan on letting students finish the rockets next week if they want.