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EDUCATION & OUTREACH

Indiana Rocketry, Inc. maintains a proud tradition of supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education in schools around the Lafayette area.

Aside from the visceral thrill of demonstration launches, our membership has performed multimedia presentations and in-classroom demonstrations for chemistry, mathematics, and physics classes at up to a 12th grade/Advanced Placement level on a broad range of rocketry topics, including:

• General Rocket Physics – Newton’s laws of motion, free body diagramming the forces on a rocket, the rocket equation, performance prediction, launch vehicle control and trajectory design.
• Rocket Aerodynamics – lift, drag, fin planform and airfoil design, supersonic drag prediction & shock waves.
• Rocket Propulsion – combustion of solid and liquid propellants, basic propellant chemistry, thermodynamics of fluid flow (including compressible flow for nozzles).
• Spacecraft Dynamics – basic orbital mechanics, precession and nutation, mission design.
• Aerospace Structures – composite materials, challenges of engine fabrication, basic problems with stiffness & elasticity.

Get in touch with us if you’d like more information on our presentation or demonstration capabilities. Education is part of our mission statement; after all, several of our members are teachers and professors, and are incredibly passionate about sharing the excitement of rocketry.

Recent presentations have occurred in classes at:

• Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School (AP Physics C, AP Chemistry).
• Harrison High School (Advanced Chemistry).
• Jefferson High School (Introduction to Aerospace Engineering class).
• Tecumseh Jr High School (Junior/Senior-level physics class).

Rose Hulman students posing for a quick picture after they all received their Level 1 certification

Water rocket demonstration for students at Jefferson High School.