PORT ANGELES — Film canister rockets ignited student curiosity during a Peninsula College Chemistry Club presentation at Franklin Elementary School’s Science Night.
In a lesson titled “Blast Off!” that was presented March 10, students were shown the chemistry behind rocket launches by building film canister rockets and shooting them through hula-hoop targets.
About 200 Franklin students from 5 to 12 years old participated in Science Night, an annual event in which teachers and community members set up small exhibits of their work or hands-on experiments.
The film canister rockets, propelled by carbon dioxide gas generated from a chemical reaction using Alka-Seltzer tablets, had firing ranges of more than 30 feet.
Franklin students tested the rockets and investigated firsthand the properties of matter through rocket launch experiments.
In addition to the Chemistry Club, other presenters included Peninsula College’s Ian Miller and Sharon Rapach and community groups such as the Feiro Marine Life Center and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Katie Brenkman of Peninsula College organized the event.
During the winter quarter, Chemistry Club members including Ali Coleman, Kelly Anders, Amanda Larson, Lisa Sedgwick, Yiding Wang, Baoxin Lai and Brad Stone designed, fabricated and tested the rockets with assistance from the college welding shop.
The Peninsula College Chemistry Club is a student chapter of the American Chemical Society.
Past club events have included field trips to regional science labs and conferences, science outreach events for kids and hosting guest speakers from the community on science topics.
For more information, contact faculty adviser Ben Weintraub at bweintraub@pencol.edu.
