Last week, schools all around the country were given a mission from the 4-H National Youth Science Day project: to build a rocket that would drop off a load of raisins in a target after launch. 

The experiment, Rockets to the Rescue, was a national initiative where students around the world were required to "to deliver a payload of food to natural disaster victims living on an island,” according to a previous EducationWorld.com article.

Three Kannapolis, North Carolina schools spent a week working on the project, said an article on SalisburyPost.com. Fifth-grader Sarah Smothers said her class put the raisins on the inside of their rocket, "so it doesn't mess with the aerodynamics."

“We launched rockets and tried to get it in the red circle,” said fifth-grader Sarah Smothers.

Sarah Chapin, teacher at Kannapolis Intermediate, said the exercise taught "force and motion, which is a part of the students' common core curriculum." The class also measured angles "to make sure the rockets could get to the island.

"The activity was important because it let the students apply what they've been taught," Allen said. “It also helps with team building.”

The students, the article said, "were divided into groups and given basic materials such as card stock, tissue paper, tape, string, rubber bands, straws and pipe to create their rockets."

"It was up to them to design the rockets and figure out where to place the payload," the article said. "On Thursday, they put their creations to the test, using rocket launchers made of two-liter plastic bottles and PVC pipe to propel the rockets and their payloads toward the target."

Read the full story. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor