Presentation for Final Review
Review Presentation
VIRTUAL AERONAUTICS EXPLORATION - Project
Documents
All project documentation will be posted here as
the project progresses to completion. All documents will contain
version numbers. At anytime you can come and get the most recent
materials as they are produced.
Project Office Specifications
(ExP) Experiential Platform - These documents
set the specifications that the LT-supported projects must follow
as a guide when creating learning materials in the future. This
document is a work in progress.
ExP
Version 2 - (PDF File)
ExP
Version 3 - (PDF File)
Project Proposals:
- The initial proposal submitted to the Project Office for fiscal
year 2003.
Immersive
Connection to Remote Wind Tunnel
Mathematical resources
Dean's
BenchTop - view the three links in his Theory section.
Project Task Milestones:
- Virtual Aeronautics Phase I Milestone documents for the Bottle
Rocket 3D activity.
Bottle
Rocket Outline - version 1 - 2/7/03
Application
Requirements and Specs - version 2 - 3/13/03
- UPDATED
Introduction to Inquiry-Based
Learning:
Introduction
to Inquiry-Based Learning - by Joe Kolecki.
(PDF Document)
Project lesson Plans:
- Work is in progress with Glen LTP, COSI Toledo, and the GVIS
Lab at NASA Glenn.
In Development
- more to be posted soon.
E-mail from Educators:
- Comments received from reviewers of our work and future work.
This e-mail was
received via a COSI Toledo. Feedback from our discussions with
them about the project.
I have had the opportunity now to speak to a couple
of different groups of teachers/educators regarding the Virtual
Aeronautics Exploration, both down at the Ohio Schoolnet Conference
in Columbus in February, and then to some of the teachers we work
with here at COSI in March. The teachers down at Schoolnet were
generally middle and high school teachers, and the teachers from
the area I talked to were mostly elementary-age educators. I was
able to speak to about 16 educators overall.
Pretty much all of the teachers were more in favor of the bottle
rockets as opposed to the Sports Balls simulation. Some of the
comments included:
-It [Bottle Rocket Simulation] would be great for a couple of
different units in the classroom. One on the science of motion,
Newton's Laws, force, trajectory, etc., and the second on the
process of doing science and carrying out trials.
-I like the way it [bottle rocket unit] would let my students
test many different variables, and it would be exciting enough
for the students to do it multiple times.
-It would be hard for the students to do hands-on activities with
the sports balls ~ they're at very different levels of kinesthetic
ability.
-My students are really into NASA and the space program, and building
rockets would feed right into that interest.
Based on the conversations, it seemed that although teachers liked
both concepts, they very quickly saw how they could incorporate
the bottle rocket simulation into their classroom, and had a harder
time working with a Sports Ball Simulation. The rocket simulation
seemed to 'fit' better with academic content standards (at least
Ohio's, which all of the teachers were from here). I think, too,
an underlying element is that all of the students could actively
engage in building types of rockets, whereas not many of the students
would be able to throw a curveball for him/herself (which is not
to say that there aren't other hands-on activities to emulate
that).
I hope this feedback is helpful as you progress on the project.
Let us know what the next step is ~
Wishing y'all the best!
Sam
Science Specialist
COSI Toledo
This e-mail was
received via a response to our on-line response forms for RocketModeler.
Thank you so much for your quick response and link
to your bottle rocket launcher.The simple bottle rocket launcher
on your referenced site is definitely a great start.I'm becoming
a strong advocate for the water-powered bottle rockets for both
student and school use. Why? Because they are considerably safer
and significantly less expensive which are two key factors impacting
school and student acceptance. Plus we have no environmental issues
or hazardous materials concerns which minimize the administrative
expenses. Combined, these "positives" allow the students
to work more independently both at home and school with minimal
liabilities.
At the risk of being too presumptuous, here's a
draft "wish list" for additional bottle rocket design
/ flight simulator features that I believe would be a huge benefit
to our students.
Disclaimer -- my rocket knowledge is limited, so
please consider my suggestions as "conceptual" given
I lack the expertise to make any specific technical rocket design/analysis
recommendations.
Design Application... provide a CAD-like application
that facilitates rocket design via drag-and drop assembly using
pre-defined rocket assembly "modules," i.e., rocket
"engine," fins, body, nose cone, recovery system, etc.
These modules would have predefined shapes / variables that could
be changed by the student to support alternative designs and the
corresponding flight analyses. As a rule-of-thumb, commercial-off-the-shelf
products (COTS) available at local retail stores and commonly
used by rocket modelers would be used, e.g., plastic bottles used
for carbonated drinks; pvc pipe; packaging tape; PL caulking;
plastic bag liners; Tomy timers; balsa; hot glue; ping pong balls;
etc.For simplicity and to support the broadest range of user levels,
a default rocket comprised of typical modules could be provided
by the application as the opening screen. The student could then
proceed with either modifying the default design or start from
scratch by opening a new blank screen.
Possible design "modules" ...Rocket "engine"
-- various commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) water bottles (1 liter,
2 liter, etc. w/ the 2 or 3 COTS shapes) w/ default variables
that the student can modify both graphically or via numerical
data entry (diameter, length, shape, volume, nozzle length, size,
shape, etc.)
Rocket body -- various pre-defined shapes (with
default values) for establishing the rocket body length, e.g.,
second "bottle" or partial bottle attached to the rocket
"engine" bottle, tapered bottle, etc. Ideally the student
could choose the pre-defined shape; add the module to the rocket
engine module; and then graphically drag object "handles"
to re-shape the object with the variables automatically re-calculating
to reflect the revised shape.
Rocket fins -- various predefined fin configurations,
e.g., number of fins, shapes, materials, mounted configurations;
etc. Again once the fins module was assembled onto the rocket,
the student could modify the design either graphically or via
numerical data entry.
Nose cone -- various pre-defined shapes with default
values, e.g., rounded cone, pointed cone, etc. Again the student
should be able to graphically re-shape the nose cone.
Recovery options -- free fall "dart,"
parachute, rotors, winged glider, etc, using predefined configurations
with specific design variables, e.g., weight, size, materials,
etc., that can be modified by the student.
Design analysis... application would evaluate the
student's design and provide graphical feedback highlighting positive
and negative design characteristics, e.g., denote the calculated
CG and center of pressure and proposed improvements; analyze fins
and propose improvements, etc. Support recommendations with layered
technical analysis so students could analyze the data to whatever
level their interest and knowledge support.
Launch analysis...From what I've seen to date, the
launch simulators seem to be much more complete than the design
applications. I've seen a number of launch simulators including
yours that are available online. These applications seem to support
estimating the flight parameters by inputting the rocket design
variables supported by the application. Suspect the inputs variables
would need to be expanded to better support the analysis.
Thank you again for taking the time to respond
to me first email. Look forward to seeing your next RocketModeler
release.
Again, please don't hesitate to contact me if I
can help move this forward.
Scott
Coach for the Science
Olympiad, Inc.
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