It's rocket science in Doug Bowman's Physics classes at Lehighton High School. Each semester, Bowman has challenged his classes by having them build, test and launch rockets-a challenge to grow scientifically from Lehighton to eternity. 

This term, he coaches two teams towards a Team America Rocket Challenge national competition where they will  launch an egg 850-feet into the sky, and three of his physics classes are learning rocket science-hands on, by building model rockets. 

The 11 and 12 grade classes are learning Newton's Laws of Motion, meeting the National Science Standards, learning to work in science-based teams, develop their modeling skills, and thrill to watching a rocket that they built-blast-off. 

The class purchased commercial rocketry kits of a variety of designs and sizes. The kit parts were made of cardboard, balsa wood and plastic materials-all light materials. The solid-fuel  rocket engines were bulk purchased by Bowman and not given to the students until they were ready to launch their rockets. The entire project from conception, to launch, to analysis, covered several weeks of the term. 

"We talk about the forces of flight, the engine, impulse, and we interpret graphs to understand how the engines work," explained Bowman. "We are learning the procedures of science, how we make choices, and how we investigate things." 

A number of students who have completed previous class rocketry projects have joined the rocketry club and gone on to study science or engineering in college. 

A the start of the project, the students received the rocket kits they ordered, opened the packaging, studied the plans, and began gluing the parts together. For some of the students, it was the first time that they had to measure, mark and cut accurately. 

"It's kind of weird being in science and doing rockets but it has a lot to do with physics," said student Amber Steigerwalt. "I never built a rocket before. I hope it goes really high." 

"It's cool," said Michael Blew. "You get to build rockets to see how high they go. It may become a hobby." 

A few weeks later, the rockets were nearly complete and the class was studying the forces of the rocket engine. Doug Bowman explained that when the fuel inside the engine burns, the gases that are created are rapidly exhausted. This exhaust creates a force or a thrust. 

After illustrating typical curves that chart force vs. time for several sizes of engines, the class when outdoors to the athletic field to test fire several engines. We had to go far from the building because one time, when the fumes from the test were sucked into the building, it caused the fire alarm system to commence a fire drill. 

Bowman placed a small engine, an A8-3, onto the bracket of a force transducer and ignited the engine with an electrical spark. The engine ignited: first as a flame for several seconds, then several seconds of black smoke, and then, a "poof"-the ejection charge to open parachute and nose cone by bursting out the other end. 

The test was repeated from the smallest "A" engine to a large "D12-7" engine. Where D is the impulse power of the engine, "12" is the advertised average thrust in Newtons, and the "7" is the delay time from when the engine stopped firing until it backfired to eject the parachute. There were 7 seconds of actual thrust. 

The class returned to the classroom to compare the advertised ratings of the engine to its tested performance. 

Finally, on Oct. 19, after a month of building, testing, and calculating, the rockets were ready to launch-roughly 20 rockets in each of three classes. 

Bowman gave members of each class an assignment: some would be launching. Others would be measuring altitude using a trigonometric method, and the rest would be retrieving the rockets. 

Each rocket was placed on the launch pad and wired to the launch control box. The safety coordinator would make sure the area was clear and begin the countdown: 5-4-3-2-1-blast-off-followed by a "s-hhhhhhhhhhh," as the rocket fired into a flight of 40 seconds to one minute in duration taking it up to 750 feet. 

"The kids learned a lot," said Bowman. "There's a lot of problem solving skills involved. To figure out how to put things together, they have to do a lot of planning. It's not just snapping things together. They have to think about what they are doing."