This was our 16th Rocketry Unit at the Page School and we hit a milestone. None of the teachers, teacher's aids, principals, or superintendents that were part of the Page School or Pentucket School System when we launched our first rockets in Oct of 2008 are still around. John Benvenuti, who retired last year was the last of that original group. Aside from me, there has been a complete turnover. This is a good sign, because I think it means the program can stand on its own and is not dependent on any one person. I'm still there, and I still do most of the organizing; but the present science teacher, Trina Forest, is doing more and more each year and I'm confident the unit will survive without me.
The class size this year was again 40 students split into two homerooms. Trina Forest has one, and Melissa Fournier has the other. As we have done for many years now, the two rockets are the Thing-a-Ma-Jig and a Razor clone kitted for us by FlisKits. Ray DiPaola still has not got that kit into the catalog, so it has always gone without a name- until now. I've christened the kit The Panther! Panthers is the name of Pentucket's sports teams. And if it ever does make it into the catalog, the colors should be green and white - the school colors. (Just a suggestion, Ray.) We did change the location of the build session this year. It has traditionally been in John's (now Melissa's) homeroom. This year we had the build session in the school's Science Lab, which worked out really well and will most likely be the future home of rocketry at the Page.
The prebuild session, where a few students stay after school and help assemble parachutes, streamers, motor packets, fill glue bottles, prep each kit for the build session, went well as it usually does. We had six volunteers this year and it was all done in an hour. They were a good group.
As usual for the build, I demonstrate how various parts go together - the 'dry-fit', with the kids just watching. The kids then do the same dry-fit and if all parts fit together nicely, we follow it with glue. In the middle of build session, we stop to allow the glue to set on the parts that were constructed so far, and I give a short lesson in rocketry, triangulation, some basic physics and show a few rocketry YouTube videos. No issues with glue this year but we did have a few overly eager students, wanting to glue any to pieces together, who had to be told - 'Put the glue bottle down!'
The launch had to be postponed a few days because of wind and then rain; but the launch day was really nice; temps in the 70's, mostly sunny with very little wind! This year the launch day started in the Science Lab. We have all the students prep their rockets for their first flight, with an A8-3 motor and parachute. We go over the procedure and rules for the launch, and the teams fill out their launch card. We then head down to the launch field. The Page School is lucky in that there is a large soccer field across the road from the school that is a 10 minute walk. We had seven proctors for the launch this year, including John Benvenuti who showed up to help out. It was great for me to see him again, and everyone enjoyed having John there - like old times! Trina was the LCO this year, taking over John's old responsibility.
Each team launched their rocket twice, first on an A8-3, second on a B6-4. The teams use an Estes Altitrak and stopwatch to measure how high their rockets flew and average velocity at the tracking station 200 ft away from the launch pad. The rockets recover via chute on the A motor and then on a streamer for the B motor. By now, the B-motor 'Wow' is expected from the students and parents! And even though I know it's going to happen and wait for it, it is still great to hear! Everyone is just amazed at how high the rockets go on a B motor.
Each year, there is something that catches my attention and, for me, is the theme for that year. This year it was straight flights. I got to watch a number of flights, and quite a number were true 90° flights. More than I can remember in a number of years. Part of it is due to the almost no wind for most of the launch, the other is to the design of the two rockets. But the students this year deserve credit as well for doing a really good job building their rockets.
Two of the students brought their own rockets and launched them after all of the required launches were done. We had them announce their rocket and push the launch button. They all enjoyed that. I launched two of my own: LOC's Cool Spool and my Frick-n-Frack. The Cool Spool went up on an F44 motor, which is loud and the everyone really loved that! We also launched Mrs. Forest's Rocket. Finally, we launched six Thing-a-ma-jigs each with two 80 ft. streamers attached to its fins. This year I went with rainbow colors. We got four of the six to go and I was happy with that. We took our group shot, cleaned up the field and the kids headed back to school. That afternoon, they finished their calculations and completed a writing and drawing assignments for the. After all of the assignments have been graded, Trina and Melissa will give them to me to look at. My summer reading! Pictures are in the PageSchoolRocketry2025.
One side note, the new principal of the Page School, Dr. Greg Gilligan came up to the science lab to see all of the rockets and he attended the launch. It has been a few principals and more than 10 years since any principal has shown interest in the rocketry program. It was really nice to see him there and it means a lot for him to attend!
I want to thank CMASS and especially Guy for the donation of two 12V batteries and battery charger to the Page School. Guy in past years has also constructed the PA system that we use, and rewired the launch system for us. Guy is truly a friend of the Page and we all are very grateful for his efforts.