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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Fifth graders Will Ennis and Lizzy West discuss their findings in a progress report that details the Dolly Ridge Rocket Team’s project.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Ryan Wu, a fifth grader at Vestavia Hills Elementary Dolly Ridge, talks about how the Dolly Ridge Rocket Team created a circuit board and payload prototypes to hold a weather sensor for the United Launch Alliance.
Students in Rachael Franklin’s fifth-grade gifted students class are designing part of the payload for a soon-to-be-launched United Launch Alliance rocket that will monitor weather data in rural areas.
Vestavia Hills Elementary School Dolly Ridge is the only elementary school in the country to take part in the program, which otherwise involves high school and college students who submitted proposals to ULA, Franklin said.
The rocket will be launched in Colorado in July and the hope is that the devices, in the shape of pyramids, will be able to collect data before coming back down. The students will come back to school and analyze the data. They have made 3-D designs, analyzed results of tests and built circuit boards and other parts of the payload.
The work began in November and the project was submitted in February and approved.
“It’s a very quick turnaround for students who aren’t used to doing technological engineering,” Franklin said.
The students have been “very dedicated and very creative,” she said. “The first test got shattered, but instead of complaining, they simply went back to work.”
The weather data will come from rural areas and can be given to residents to document the impact of severe weather, which can be used to help keep residents safe and possibly improve insurance coverage. The students also plan to help use the device as part of a weather warning system in rural Alabama, according to their application to ULA.
“It will save a lot of money for people in rural towns,” student Benjamin Black said.
The 2021 class also built a similar device, though it only gathered part of the necessary data after the device broke in half upon launch.
The students code the equipment, design and use a 3-D printer to make the product. They properly code the circuit boards to communicate with the sensor on the device’s base, which is set up to tell the device what to analyze while it is in the air, Franklin said.
“This really is a great experience for learning and it’s a way to show what you’ve learned,” she said.
Each student has different strengths, so roles are determined based on those. While Franklin prints on the 3-D printer, the students do all the work.
“It’s just kind of fun to see what they’ll come up with,” Franklin said. “They really have to do it all themselves.”
The students have enjoyed talking with the rocket scientists and other professionals at ULA, who have been helpful, Franklin said. They’ve even interacted with the company CEO on Twitter.
Team members include: George Cochran, Benjamin Black, Cora Moorhouse, Reid Purvis, Lizzy West, Will Ennis, Kate Howell, Caleb Martin, Ryan Wu and Olivia Bodkin. The students will have an opportunity to go to Colorado and see the rocket launched.
