Science Club for Girls Rocket Team is a high-school rocketry club, which requires a different mindset than our engineering efforts, or even our other outreach programs.

  • Many of the new students are not familiar with tools
  • Most students are just beginning physics
    • It's easy to under-explain the physics after getting through unified
  • The language of rocketry and even engineering or science in general can be confusing at first, but they catch on faster than you'd expect
  • The goal of the program is for the girls to learn and gain confidence, not necessarily to build the best rocket

With this in mind, here are some lessons we learned:

  • 2016-2017:
    • Started building rockets too late
      • The girls were hesitant at that point to actually use tools
      • The weather didn't help us with launches
    • Overplanning lessons was usually futile
      • Just plan one or two activities, but always let the girls direct the lesson to what they're interested in, or just let them build if they want
    • The students can be over-ambitious, so mentors need to actively push back towards simplicity
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