Learning plus fun equals happy campers

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Camp coordinator Jere Matty helped AEDC personnel's children have fun while learning during a three-day summer camp.

Seventeen children, in sixth and seventh grades, participated in activities such as building and launching rockets, conducting experiments using household items and a trip to the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

Professor Billy Hix, an award-winning STEM Camp leader and educator, conducted experiments with household items, such as soap and non-dairy creamer, to see how they would react due to their different chemical structures.

The campers were able to build and launch water-propelled bottle rockets but only after they understood some theories of propulsion.

Matty explained that Hix used a broom to demonstrate rocket stability. By balancing a broom in his hand from either end, the handle end or the bristle end, Hix described how the end with the most mass would lead. As a result, with the bristle end up and the handle end balanced in the palm of his hand, Hix was able to balance the broom with more ease. Hix explained that a rocket with its mass located on the top would have better trajectory because the center of mass is above the center of pressure.

Campers also built and launched solid-fuel powered model rockets, straw rockets and balsa gliders.

At the Space and Rocket Center campers saw multiple exhibits such as the Space Transportation System tested at AEDC and the Davidson Center. The Davidson Center displayed a full scale Saturn V and other items from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.