A teacher from Mountain Creek State School (located near Mooloolaba on the QLD Sunshine Coast) had been in contact with the Queensland Rocketry Society since February 2009.  Regular discussions culminated to this very special rocketry day on Wednesday 2nd December.  Students from two classes had built total of 56 rockets that were supplied by Suburban Rocketry earlier in the year.  The 2nd December was the big day that everyone had been looking forward to – launch day!

Ari Piirainen, Petar Nikolic and Blake Nikolic headed off to Mountain Creek State School just after 7:00am in order to arrive by 9am.  It was going to be a long day, helping 56 students to prepare and check their rockets for launch.  The weather was quite windy but manageable, with cloud cover helping to keep the temperature down.

Proceedings started as a few of the classes got a brief lecture about rocketry from Petar and Ari.

Ari was the designated Range Safety Office (RSO), but unfortunately, Blake had to take over this role later on as Ari wasn’t feeling very well.  Meanwhile, Petar and Blake were helping the students fold parachutes, pack wadding, load motors, install igniters and mount the prepared rockets on the launch pads.  Rockets were launching continuously from two launch pads located on the school oval.

Although none of the students had ever built or flown any rockets before, we were totally surprised to achieve a flight success rate of around 80%.

Class after class kept coming to watch the launches.  You could hear the countdown being called from everyone around the oval.  Over 1,200 students attend Mountain Creek State School and at least half of them came to witness the rocket launching action.

We managed to launch all 56 rockets in about two and half hours, including all pre-flight preparations and recovery.  The whole day ran real smoothly.   Ari, Blake and Petar didn’t get home until 4:00pm that afternoon.  I was a full day and really worth the volunteer effort.

Two local newspapers reported this special event, and there’s no doubt about what many of the students were talking about over the dinner that night.

The Queensland Rocketry Society visited 11 schools in 2009.  The club’s school visitation program is destined to be even bigger in 2010!

On Friday 27th November, Petar Nikolic and Blake Nikolic had the pleasure of presenting a talk to the Year 3 students of Beaudesert Primary about rockets and space travel.

We were impressed by the enthusiasm shown by the students, their attentiveness and how well behaved they were.  The students had been studying a unit on space travel and rockets.  The effort the students have put into this project and enjoyment shown by them is indeed a credit to the motivation provided by Leonie Armstrong and her fellow year 3 teachers.

The students made a variety of model rockets that were propelled by air, water and chemical power.  Some students even made costumes as scientists or astronauts.  After our presentation and live firing of some model rockets, the students demonstrated to us how their rockets worked.  The morning’s activities culminated in a morning tea consisting of food with a space theme.

This obviously was a wonderful and meaningful learning experience for the students.  Petar is a retired science/maths teacher.  In his words: “It is pleasing to see the work of the dedicated staff at Beaudesert Primary.  I thank Leonie for contacting us and allowing us to be part of this enriching experience.”

Petar spoke about the history of space travel using models of the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle. Blake showed the students how model rockets work. The students were very responsive and asked some great questions.

The oohs and ahs as the rockets were launched after the students did the countdown is always great to hear.

One of the teacher’s present is very keen to start a rocket club at the school next year. We look forward to helping him in this endeavour.

On Friday 30th October, Ari Piirainen, Blake Nikolic, George Dobson and Brendan Pratt travelled over to Faith Lutheran College at Victoria Point to deliver another rocketry presentation to the local school students.

Over 500 students and staff came to hear about various rocketry topics.  Another 100 students wanted to attend but couldn't make it due to some other activity.  This was our biggest school audience to date.

Each representative from the Queensland Rocketry Society answered dozens of questions from the young enquiring minds.  We also had a privilege of joining all the teachers for morning tea.  They really made us fell welcome!  This is another school which basically can't wait to get a rocketry programme up and going.

The deputy principal of Faith Lutheran College, who arranged this visit has also invited Ari to speak on 17th November at an upcoming Rotary Club.  This is a special night where the member’s families are tending and will have an opportunity to hear all about this awesome hobby!