I love teaching about rockets and using it as an experiment. I have previously done the lesson on the Mouse Rockets with classes and they loved it. The students were very engaged throughout the process of learning about rockets and making their own.
I would like to try the string and balloon rocket experiment from the Marvin and Milo comic. I had never thought of using a clothes peg to close a balloon rather than tying it, I thought that was a great idea as often children struggle with this skill. Being able to have the rocket ‘fly’ along the string makes it easier to manage the testing of their rockets in a classroom. After we conducted the experiment we could discuss if there were ways to improve their rockets, what might they add to it or remove? How could they get it to go faster or slower? What makes the rocket stay on course? What propels their rockets? Could this be changed?