Do you want to launch a rocket with your students or kids? Are you afraid or unsure where to start? Keep reading for a beginners guide to model rockets based on my years of experience launching hundreds of model rockets with all ages. I also linked to a Google Drive with tons of valuable resources to get you started! 

This post is part one of a three part series on model rocketry in the classroom. 

Take your students on an unforgettable journey to the stratosphere! What can be more exciting than launching a balloon to the edge of space and seeing footage of the Earth from above? A weather balloon project (also known as High Altitude Balloon or HAB) involves designing a payload and using a helium balloon to send an experiment up to 100,000 feet into the stratosphere! 

Based on three years of successful weather balloon experience with over 300 middle school students, we created a full guide that helps students design a payload, select an experiment, launch, and recover the balloon from a 100,000-foot journey to the edge of space!

Ready to launch your students into some space STEM activities? Read on to explore our top space-themed STEM activities. These activities are categorized into our 3 stages of STEM to fit different learning levels. 

We have put together some activity suggestions, tips, resources, and an event planning guide to make the most of a Solar Eclipse happening near you! We also have a FREE solar eclipse paper circuit lesson in our STEM Explorer Lesson Library!

Inspiring kids to pursue their dreams in STEM has been our main goal with Vivify. There are now so many resources available to motivate students with hands-on STEM experiences, but how do you find the best ones? We had a chance meeting with the founder and CEO of RocketEd and are blown away by his passion for STEM education and reaching every student through the awe-inspiring wonder of model rocketry!Read on for our interview with Sam Pedrotty of RocketEd to learn about his wonderful company, FREE resources, and great products to use in your home, classroom, or program.

Join us as we give you all the details about our popular Space Lander STEM Challenge and link up with some other great STEM educators sharing the BEST STEM CHALLENGE EVER!

Teachers love the Space Lander STEM challenge because the students are completely engaged. Students not only learn, but deeply understand the engineering design process, key science concept, and math standards all while improving their soft skills involved in teamwork.

No FBI report or stolen data this time! My Space Club students successfully launched and recovered a weather balloon from 80,000 feet! Read to learn about our adventure and tips to complete your own balloon launch. 

Every child has looked up at the twinkling stars on a clear night and wondered about the vastness above. The night sky captures a child's imagination and leads to profound thoughts and questions about our place in the world. The need to explore and discover is a common thread among humans, and the greatest unknowns lay in the night sky above us. Giving students a window into the beauty of space and teaching the journey of humankind's exploration of other worlds is a powerful tool to inspire and engage an interest in science and engineering. 

Last year, I started a new Space Club program at four middle schools. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I searched the web for ideas and curriculum to implement. I soon became excited to find great resources like NASA and TeachEngineering, but I was also overwhelmed as a simple Google search for "Space STEM activities" gives you a mere 89 million hits. Wading through a lot of junk eventually brought some gems that I could implement, and I leave it to another post to rant about the lack of quality in many activities that claim to be "STEM." 

I know you have been waiting on pins and needles on the update from the last balloon launch failure! The students were very disappointed in the lost data, but they learned a valuable lesson of engineering. Failure is an integral part of all engineering, and it provides an opportunity to learn and try again! 

After a successful launch, the balloon team was on fire! We had just successfully launched a balloon into the stratosphere, and everyone was jumping from excitement. But very quickly our enthusiasm turned to dread as we had yet to receive a GPS signal. We went from the high of releasing the balloon to a state of depression as we anxiously refreshed the webpage, hoping the GPS would come through. Without a signal, all hope was lost for recovering the balloon.

At 8:30 AM, after delicious breakfast tacos, the students and the high school film crew, drove to the launch site. We had a welcome party waiting at the park including teachers, school staff, media, and a local celebrity! Bill Taylor, weatherman of KENS5, brought his daughter to witness the launch and cheer us on. He even documented the event on his Facebook page, which garnered almost 20,000 views!