Ready for lift off
<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Daven Griffey, 10, launches his air-and-water powered rocket into the sky Tuesday during a science camp at River City Middle School.</p>
<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Jameson Wasson, 8, right, and Isaac Lunnen, 9, look skyward at a rocket that was launched by one of their science fair classmates.</p>
POST FALLS - Some flew high.
Some didn't.
Made no difference.
Either way, students cheered, parents and teachers applauded, kids smiled.
"I think it went pretty good," said Isaac Lunnen after watching his rocket soar 125 feet into the sky, finally stall, then slowly sink to the grass field outside River City Middle School.
Isaac was one of about 100 students in the fourth annual science summer camp that wraps up today in Post Falls for grades three to six. This year theme's is "Journey through Science."
Students spent nearly three weeks studying space exploration, physical and chemical properties, map making, ship building, buoyancy, density, rocketry principles and naturally, Newton's three laws of motion.
"I just love seeing the kids and the hands on, their thought process and how they go through learning science," said instructor and camp director Ron Simpson.
Interns from Lewis-Clark State College have been teaching students inside and outside the classrooms. Despite being in August and competing with TV, games and movies, the camp remains popular.
"Unfortunately, in a regular classroom setting, they're not getting as much hands on science as we would like them to. This is a good opportunity," Simpson said.
The highlight comes when students send rockets sailing upward.
"It's launching with the compressed air and water is the propellant," Simpson said.
He said the program is free and filled with kids happy to be in the classroom in August.
"These are kids that are interested in science, they want to be here," he said.
Each student constructed their rocket using a plastic two-liter bottle, duct tape and cardboard. Isaac Lunnen took two days on his design.
"I tried to make it aerodynamic so it could go higher and faster," he said.
Mission accomplished.