Athol, MA Public Library
On the Same Page Community Reading Program
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam in conjunction with a rocket build and launch.

What a crowd, what a crowd! The Athol Public Library model rocket students
with their models held high!

This all began early this year when a message was sent out to all CMASS members about a request from the Athol Public Library in Athol, MA.  They had a reading program and the current topic/book was Homer Hickam's "Rocket Boys", the book that spawned the movie "October Sky".  If you haven't read the book and/or seen the movie, it is a "must see", "must read".  Take the time to enrich your life with this wonderful story about early rocketry, life challenges and the trials and tribulations of a coal mining family in the early 50's.

I volunteered to help them out and contacted Karen McNiff about the program.  We quickly set up a rocket building class based on the Triseklion kit and set our dates.  The class was available to anyone in the town and we had a nice mix of young and old, guys and gals and many supportive family members as well.   The building session went very well.  We were even visited by a Senator Brewer as he was also involved in this program and participated in the reading of "Rocket Boys".

As with most of my classes, we did not finish the assembly and sent the class home to finish them on their own.  This is a deliberate method of teaching that I have been using for many years now.  Setting the class up so that we cover all of the most complex parts of the assembly, then sending them home to finish them does many things:

1. Forces them to read, really READ the instructions
2. Encourages them to include family and friends in the construction and to help with instructions and tool use.
3. Instills a sense of pride that they actually accomplished this on their own
4. Shows them that they can go buy their own model rocket and build it without the need of a teacher explaining every step.

The results are 100% success rate and a modeler that has very deep feelings for their models and the sport of hobby rocketry.  These kids come to the field on launch day not because they want to "launch their rocket", but because they "want to FLY".  A subtle but important difference.

Waiting for the weather to warm up, we scheduled our launch for late April and I traveled out to Athol once again to help these new rocketeers earn their stars.  I showed up about 30 minutes early only to discover I was not the first one there.  Man, this group was PUMPED!  By the time I got my truck unloaded and begun to set up the field, most of the class was there and eagerly helping to get things moving.

I spent a moment explaining and showing how to install the igniter and install the motor then how to fold and pack the parachute and use recovery wadding.  I then explained that they were to do this on their own and I would inspect their final model.  They went off with the prerequisite materials and began their work.  A couple of them had to come back for a repeat of the instructions, but not many.  Also, a few had to make use of the CA in the field as in their excitement they broke a fin or two.

I made it very clear during the build session and again out in the field that if you completed your rocket and it got damaged before it flew that we would have the tools and materials to repair it to get it into the air, BUT if your model was not *competed* by launch day it would not fly.  We will FIX rockets in the field, we will not BUILD rockets in the field.

I then explained how my launch pads and controller worked and explained to them that I am just a spectator and coordinator.  These are YOUR rockets, YOU fly them (and you retrieve them also :) )

It was one of the most spectacular launches I have participated in in a long time.  Each rocket went straight and true.  We lost a couple with the B motors, but most were recovered and I made a point of telling the class what a wonderful job they did for their first rocket.

A whole lot of fun.  You should try it.  The photo's on the left are a short album of our rocketry adventure.  I had the shutter speed on the camera set wrong so the launch pictures are blurred, but still fun.   Click on the thumb nail to have a full size image appear here.  These are all LOW resolution images.  If you attended this launch and would like a full resolution version of a picture, please send me an email with your request.  The Press may use these photo's in reporting on this launch or this library activity so long as proper credit is given.

jim