No cool pictures, but today I performed 3 rocket launches with an audience of 30 6th graders. Woo! It was a massive hit, and covered a good half dozen of the specific learning objectives from the grade 6 program of studies. Basically the goal is to show them what a stable orbit looks like, and how the mechanics behind how an object behaves while it's in orbit. Along the way, with some diliberatly failed launches we learned about air resistance, drag, parabolic arch's, and why stability is important. I really wish the arodynamic systems worked more realistically. It would make the flight unit an absolute ton of fun rather than just making a bajillion paper airplanes. I could probably convince my principal to spring for at least a few .edu licenses if I could make it work for that unit.
