General Instructions- Verbal Reports

The verbal report is a summary of the technical report and your process including project introduction, criteria & constraints;
summary of your research topics and conclusions; individual and group brainstorming (stage 1: conceptual design) with decision
matrices; prototyping (stage 2: preliminary design); experimentation, testing and analysis of prototype; final design and testing;
conclusions; and individual reflections.

3-5 minutes total

All members must participate equally, all must dress up.

See the guidelines and rubric in the Engineering Notebook for more details

Make your presentation stands out (Change the background, layout, etc. This is an outline)

Practice your presentation as a team. This will reflect in your comfort and confidence.

Have an outline or script. Do not read from the slides or rely overly on the script. BE PREPARED, you have done the work. This is
explaining it.

DELETE THIS SLIDE BEFORE PRESENTING

Rocketry Project: Final
Rocketry Project: Nose Cone
Brayen Burke and Ira Crandall
Project Introduction, Criteria & Constraints
Our team has been hired by SpaceX to determine what features make a rocket fly the highest and
farthest.

Criteria: Constraint:
-Prototype 9 rockets -Only test on variable
-Test 3 final rockets -Collaborate with other groups to determine the best
design for the highest rocket and the longest rocket
-Teams will only test either height or distance
-Only paper
-Certain adhesives

Roles:
-Teams will have two members that will:
-Research a minimum of 5 sources
-CAD model rockets for each variable
-Build rockets from each variable
Ira Crandall Research
I researched five different sources. For my first
source, I looked at the different elements of a rocket
and how design influences flight. I found that the
nose cones and fins are to minimize air resistance
and keep the rocket stable. I also found that the
diameter and nose cone shape most influence drag.
For my second source, I looked at different nose
cone shapes and how they affect flight, so we could
decide on the shape for our nose cone. For my third
source, I looked at the four forces of flight and the
center of mass and pressure. For the rocket to fly,
the center of pressure needs to behind the center of
gravity. I then looked at how to construct a basic
rocket nose cone out of paper. And for my fifth
source, I looked at different types of paper.
Brayden’s Research

I research about different types of nose cones and different types of material. I
came up with traditional, short, fat, and pencil.

With material, I came up with 10 different types

Printer paper, Tissue paper, Kraft paper,

Parchment paper, News paper, Wax paper,

Acid free paper, Stone paper, and Loose leaf paper

Ira Crandall Individual Brainstorming
For my brainstorming, I just thought
about different types of papers we
could use and their pros and cons. I
looked at watercolor/art paper, printing
paper, parchment paper, and cardstock
paper. They all had different pros and
cons regarding weight, smoothness,
and strength.
Brayden’s Individual Brainstorming

For my brainstorming, I decided to choose stone paper and tradition. I picked

these because stone paper cause it is very strong and light. I choose using my
decision board to figure out my material.
Group Brainstorming
For our group brainstorming, we just
listed all the papers we could think of.
Decision Matrices

We chose to test cardstock, construction paper, and stone

paper.
Prototype Testing Performance Observations

Our prototypes were pretty hard to build. We had to cut out a lot of fins for them to
be sturdy. Funnily enough, our nose cones were the easiest to build.

Due to unexpected complications, we were unable to get our stone paper and
eventually only had 5 rockets.
 Final Design Testing Observations and Results

Wax Paper Cone: 17 ft While we were testing, it was

Mixed Media Paper Cone: 24 ft 4
in
Printer Paper Cone: 11 ft 4 in
Cardstock Paper Cone: 25 ft 3 in
very windy; which affected our
performance greatly. Yet, one of
our rockets went pretty far which
we are proud of.

Construction Paper Cone: 70 ft

Ira Crandall Reflection

I think this part of the project went pretty rough, to say the least. We could have
been more productive for a lot of the days we were in class. And, we had a bout of
bad luck on testing day, so I think our rockets could have performed better as well.
For the next section of this project, I am going to try and be more productive and
manage my time better.
Brayden Burke Reflection

I think the nose cones are the hardest part of the project. We didn’t get stone
paper, which we wanted. Also on launch day it was very windy towards our
direction. So that changed our outcome of results. But now we know most of the
information that we needed.
Rocketry Project: Body Tube
Brayen Burke and Ira Crandall
Project Introduction, Criteria & Constraints
Our team has been hired by SpaceX to determine what features make a rocket fly the highest and
farthest.

Criteria: Constraint:
-Prototype 9 rockets -Only test on variable
-Test 3 final rockets -Collaborate with other groups to determine the best
design for the highest rocket and the longest rocket
-Teams will only test either height or distance
-Only paper
-Certain adhesives

Roles:
-Teams will have two members that will:
-Research a minimum of 5 sources
-CAD model rockets for each variable
-Build rockets from each variable
Ira Crandall Research
For my research, I simply looked at the
purpose of a body tube in the
functioning and flight of a rocket. I
found the the body tube is meant to
keep the rocket flying straight and
house fuel.
Ira Crandall Individual Brainstorming
For my brainstorming, I thought up
different rocket body tube shapes.
Some of the shapes I thought up here
were used as our prototypes. The nose
cone had to vary in size for multiple
designs because of the different body
tube shapes. Since we were a bit
limited on our time, we decided to
spend more time of group
brainstorming.
Brayden Burke Research

So, I research about what a body tube actually does and the main purpose of it.
The body tube servers as a connector to all components of the rockets. I also
looked at past Nasa and Spacex rockets to see if there’s any shape difference
between the rockets from each other.
Brayden Burke Individual Brainstorming

Since, Ira wanted to do shape I just drew different shapes rockets to find the most
reasonable and not one that looks like a minecraft block. So, I have drawn some of
the rockets. Some look like a snow cone, others look like a decent looking rocket.
Group Brainstorming
Me and Brayden thought up a variety of
rockets, most of which we would
actually build. We decided to use the
cardstock nose cone because it
performed the best in our previous tests,
and to use a simple fin design. We just
threw out bizarre ideas for this
brainstorming.
Decision Matrix
Prototyping
When building, we reused several parts
from our nose cone testing (like the
fins). Building the cones and having
them attach to the body tube base
correctly was pretty difficult, but it
worked out in the end. We were using
one type of tape on our rockets but it
ran our so we had to use a different
type. Some of our rockets had air
pockets that were difficult to patch up,
and were most likely the reason that our
performance was not very good.
Results
Cone Rocket: 78 ft

Reverse Cone Rocket: 78 ft

Normal (cylindrical) Rocket: 18 ft

Cube Rocket: 15 ft

Cone at Top Rocket: 18 ft

Cone at Bottom Rocket: 30 ft

Questions?
Rocketry Project: Fins

Brayden Burke and Ira Crandall

Project Introduction, Criteria & Constraints
Our team has been hired by SpaceX to determine what features make a rocket fly the highest and
farthest.

Criteria: Constraint:
-Prototype 9 rockets -Only test on variable
-Test 3 final rockets -Collaborate with other groups to determine the best
design for the highest rocket and the longest rocket
-Teams will only test either height or distance
-Only paper
-Certain adhesives

Roles:
-Teams will have two members that will:
-Research a minimum of 5 sources
-CAD model rockets for each variable
-Build rockets from each variable
Brayden Burke Research

I research about how the fins work and what there objective that they serve. The
fins on the rocket provides stability and control the direction of the rocket. So,
without fins the rocket can’t function or take off.
Brayden Burke Individual Brainstorming

I brainstormed about what kind of fins are suitable for the rockets. I came up with
some shapes and size but we chose fins position. So, the rocket will have 3 fins.
Two of the rockets will have 3 fins at the bottom. Another, will have two rockets
fins at the middle of the rocket. Finally, two rockets will have fins at the top.
Ira Crandall research

For my research, I looked at how rockets (especially model ones) stay stable
during flight. I found that the rocket rotates around its center of gravity, and lift and
drag control the rocket. Lift and drag are controlled by the fins. The fin placement
affects the center of gravity, which in turn affects the direction of the rocket.
Ira Crandall individual brainstorming
Originally, we were planning to use the
cone or reverse cone shaped rockets
that performed best in our body tube
testing, but due to time restraints we
decided to use the normal rocket shape.
I looked at all the different positions we
could put the fins in. I also made a
different fin design to use for our
testing.
Group Brainstorming
We got together and compiled all the
different designs we had thought up.
Since fin position wasn’t a variable that
we could have a ton of variety with, we
simply decided on this; to have 2
rockets with the fins all the way at the
top, to have 2 rockets with the fins in the
middle, and to have 2 rockets with the
fins at the very bottom.
 Prototyping
We decided that these will be the final
rockets. Only thing that we could have
change is the tape on the fins and nose
cone. They weren’t airsealed.
Results

Top fins: 2.7ft and 14ft

Middle fins: 18.4ft and 10.3ft

Bottom fins: 17.9ft and 19.5ft

Questions?
Rocketry Project: Final Rockets

Brayden Burke and Ira Crandall

Project Introduction, Criteria & Constraints
Our team has been hired by SpaceX to determine what features make a rocket fly the highest and
farthest.

Criteria: Constraint:
-Prototype 9 rockets -Only test on variable
-Test 3 final rockets -Collaborate with other groups to determine the best
design for the highest rocket and the longest rocket
-Teams will only test either height or distance
-Only paper
-Certain adhesives
Roles:
-Teams will have two members that will:
-Research a minimum of 5 sources
-CAD model rockets for each variable
-Build rockets from each variable
Our Performance So Far
Overall, our rockets have not performed very well. The
best rocket we had was at the very beginning of the
project, at nose cone testing. We decided as a team
that we were going to try our best for this final launch.
That meant putting in more effort and managing our
time as best as possible.
Research

For our final, we didn’t complete any traditional research

(AKA surfing the web) and instead went off of our past
data and the past performance of other teams. The
biggest thing that we learned was to tape your rockets
thoroughly. All the rockets that exploded in the past had
air pockets that caused the failed launches. Other than
that, we learned that longer rockets worked better
(Andrew and Nathan) and longer fins worked better for
height (Perry and Keysaun).
Brainstorming and Design
During brainstorming sessions, we realized that
our fins were the thing that was really hurting our
results. They were too flimsy and small. We
found that we needed sturdy and lengthy fins.
Our design for distance is to the right. Our height
fins are longer by 1 inch. The rest of our rockets
were more simple, with our body tubes being 11
inches and our nose cones being the same
design from our past rockets.
Prototyping

The fins were the most difficult thing to

build as they were pretty big and we had
limited cardstock. But other than that,
construction went fairly smoothly. Our
rockets have lots of tape to discourage
air pockets and keep the fins sturdy.
Testing Observations

Even though we were optimistic about

our rocket’s performance, we were
surprised on how well they did. The
rapid disassembly of one of our rockets
was due to human error, not a problem
with overall rocket construction.
Results of Final Rockets

Height:

1: 0 ft

2: 209 ft

Distance:

1: 220 ft

2: 230 ft
Brayden Burke Reflection

I loved this project because this helps me in many ways. One way, is that this
helped me with understanding more about the engineering design process.
Another way, is helping me understand rockets and planes. This helps me with
getting my pilots license.
Ira Crandall Reflection
I did not do as well as I hoped to over the course of this project. Our rockets were rarely successful,
and we had a lot of teamwork difficulties. I wanted this final launch to be what we did right, and I
got what I hoped. I learned from my prior mistakes and built rockets that were successful.

This project was a learning experience for me. It taught me the importance of time management
and collaboration, because without those your rockets will never fly right. If I was to do this project
again, I would try to be a better team member and a better overall worker entirely. I would try to
work better with my teammate.
Conclusion

Overall, the final launch was our way of learning from our mistakes to make
the best rockets we could. We learned how to manage our time better by
learning what to not make mistakes on. We learned how to collaborate better
by realizing what patterns not to fall into.
Questions?