Today we led a special event at the Newton Public Library in Newton, Kansas where we led six 1-hour workshops in a sequence from 9am-4pm with a break for lunch. Sharon, one of the library employees, helped to organize the event and was crucial throughout the day. She is also a Stanford Mom!
I taught my workshop on rocketry first, since mine involves going outside and the high today is over 100 degrees. I gave a presentation on Newton’s third law and the principles of rocketry. We went over propulsion, stability, and recovery of rockets. Then, the students broke out into pairs to build bottle rockets with nose-cones and fins out of construction paper. Each student had different ideas about the best shape, thickness, and location of the different parts of the rocket. The students were very enthusiastic to share what they know about rockets, and space.
After the rockets were all assembled, and filled with water, we went outside to launch them. All the rockets were very successful, though one did land on the roof of the library — the students considered that launch to be the most successful. I enjoy seeing all of the enthusiasm and excitement of the students to learn, explore, and have fun with new concepts and activities.
I am very glad we are able to do an all-day learning festival like this since it allows all of the students to attend all of the workshops without having to pick and choose between them. All of the workshops went well, and both the teachers and the students were treated to a great catered lunch by the library. That being said, six hours of teaching made us feel pretty similar to a full day of biking. Teaching is very rewarding, but it takes a lot of energy to do well!
On a mostly unrelated note, we are staying in a beautiful 19th century house in Newton that is a National Registered Historical Site. The house was built in 1885 for a local banker and is beautifully preserved with much of the original woodwork intact. Our stay so far in Newton has been very enjoyable.
-Leo