Brownie Day

From SEDSWiki

Our chapter (Texas A&M) participated in an event at 'Brownie Day,' an event held at the University of Tulsa by the engineering staff. The event worked by rotating a group of girl scouts (2nd and 3rd grades) between multiple presentations, each of which lasted only 20 minutes. Our group got involved in this through family connections (thus the geographical disparity.)

For our twenty minute segment, we demonstrated the basics of 'Rocket Science' with some toys, and discussed how the principles affected the design of actual launch vehicles:

1. Skateboard: To demonstrate basic Newtonian principles.

2. Balloon: Filled and let go demonstrate why fins are needed.

3. Small Straw Rockets: Show that fins and gas being expelled do indeed work.

4. Bigger Air powered rockets: A lot of fun, and shows that bigger gets you more.

5. Sail Car toy: Talk about alternate forms of space travel, such as solar sails.

All these activities were preceded by questioning the girls on what they thought of what a rocket is, how to make it go straight, how to get higher, and what new ideas there are. It was important to get a feel for how inquisitive each group was so that you can expand or contract the amount of activity time versus the amount of discussion time.

Overall this was a very successful event.