Kindergarten Mini Rocket Inquiry: Part 1

Introduction:

• Gather students on the carpet in a circle. Introduce the mini-rocket launch inquiry by reading the children a story (recommended options listed under “Materials”). You may also wish to introduce students to relevant newspaper articles or images that inspire curiosity about space flight.
• Lead a discussion with students to provide support as they begin to conceptualize their design ideas.
  • Ask students: What do you know about rockets? Was there anything we learned from the story? Where have you seen information/pictures/videos about rockets before? What did the rockets look like? What was the rocket doing?
• Tell students: over the next few days (or weeks), we will be designing and building mini-rockets that will be launched in an open green space.

Lesson:

• Tell students that today they will be designing and labeling a first draft of their mini-rocket. They will also be deciding what materials they want to use to construct their concept.
  • Tell students: Today you will be creating and designing the first draft of your mini-rocket! A first draft is what we draw or write down when we are coming up with our original plan for a project. But, projects we work on will need two, three, sometimes even more drafts! Our pictures and ideas will change as we try out our designs to see if they work. Every time we learn something new, we can create a new draft to make our work better than before. For our mini-rocket project, we will create two drafts: one today for all the ideas you have now, and one more after we have had a chance to launch our mini-rockets.
  • Tell students: While drawing your mini-rocket, begin to think about what materials you want to use to build your mini-rocket. When you have drawn your mini-rocket, I will help you label the drawing with the materials you will use to bring your mini-rocket to life!
  • This first draft can be revised as learning occurs over time. As the inquiry progresses, students have the opportunity to revise/edit/modify their draft.
• Have students sit at their desks or somewhere with a hard surface they can use to draw on top of.
• Distribute Appendix A, pencils, and erasers to each student.
• Instruct students to create the first draft of their concept. Encourage learners to take their time, to erase their work, and to redraw their creation if needed.
• As students work, circulate and ask them about their designs to improve and practice their prediction making skills.
  • Ask students to describe the features and parts of their design: How will these features help your mini-rocket fly as far as possible? Why do you think this design will work?
• As you circulate, help students label their designs. Students may already have ideas about what important features they wish to label, or they may need some prompting.
  • Ask students: What materials are you going to use to build your mini-rocket? How tall is your mini-rocket going to be? Is there anything in your design that we can’t see in your picture?

Conclusion:

• Collect the students’ renderings of their mini-rockets.
• Talk to each student to make sure that you understand the materials students will require to build their mini-rockets. Create a list of the materials you will need to gather.
• Display all the mini-rocket designs so that students can see their classmates’ ideas. Tell students that the designs will be on display for the coming days and encourage them to talk about the thinking behind their concept.