Middle school science students learn about trials and data collection
Ms. Sheppard's and Mr. Johnson’s sixth grade earth science class reached for the stars as they built paper rockets and tested which length rocket would fly the furthest.
Through this activity, students learned about the scientific method, hypothesis formulation, and the importance of multiple trials for data collection.
“My favorite part about this activity was working together with a team and using math during science,” stated Jaiden Logan ‘29
Logan was responsible for collecting data by carefully recording the length of the rockets as well as the distance each specific rocket traveled.
“I like learning about independent and dependent variables,” reflected Logan.
She went on to explain that the independent variable is the cause of change. In this case, the independent variable was the length of the rocket. It changed from trial to trial as students cut their rockets to adjust the length.
The dependent variable, on the other hand, is the effect. Its value depends on the independent variable. Within the context of this experiment, the dependent variable was the distance the rocket traveled.
“This activity will give the students more practice in creating their hypothesis and drawing conclusions based on their data,” stated Johnson. “They are also using rockets that they built, and this gets them excited about the space unit later in the year!”
Way to go, sixth grade scientists!
