Have you ever wondered how rockets travel all the way into space? In this lab, you will explore the science behind multi-stage rockets by building your very own film canister rocket! Multi-stage rockets, like the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle, use separate parts that drop off along the way to make the rocket lighter and help it travel farther. In this lab, you will experiment with the power of chemical reactions to launch a small rocket. You will see how timing, fuel, and design affect how high it flies. This Multi-Stage Rocket lab is a hands-on way to understand the same principles that engineers used to send astronauts to the Moon. Extend the learning with an informational article about multi-stage rockets. You will learn the difference between two of the most famous NASA creations: Saturn V and the Space Shuttle. You’ll follow step-by-step instructions and answer questions to test what you’ve learned. By the end, you’ll see that even small rockets can teach big lessons about science, engineering, and space travel!
If your students enjoy this topic, be sure to explore our other science resources , including our Space Race Unit and Solar and Lunar Eclipses Unit Study.
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A multi-stage rocket is a rocket that is built in sections, called stages, which separate one by one as the rocket travels into space.
When a rocket launches, the first stage fires its engines and lifts the rocket off the ground. Once it runs out of fuel, that stage is dropped off. This makes the rocket lighter. Then the next stage’s engines turn on and continue pushing the rocket higher. This process can happen two or three times, depending on the rocket.
Each stage has its own engines and fuel, and getting rid of empty stages helps the rocket go faster and travel farther. This is important because escaping Earth’s gravity takes a huge amount of energy.
A famous example is the Saturn V, which was used during the Apollo missions. It had three stages that worked one after another to send astronauts to the Moon.
In simple terms, a multi-stage rocket is like a rocket that drops parts along the way so it can keep going higher and faster into space.
In the article, students will learn what a multi-stage rocket is and how it helps spacecraft travel farther into space. This article is an ideal activity to do before venturing outside to tackle the hands-on multi-stage rocket lab. The reading explains how rockets use separate stages that drop away to become lighter and more efficient. It also compares two famous examples—the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle program—showing how both use multi-stage systems in different ways. After reading, students can check their understanding by answering five multiple-choice questions that review the key ideas and help reinforce what they have learned. This is an ideal activity to do prior to the Film canister lab.
The materials list is pretty straight-forward:
During our Film Canister Lab, we started with a paper cone that fit on top, but over time, the kids ditched it to focus more on different explosion rates. I encouraged them to try different concentrations of water to Alka-Seltzer. If you added more water in the canister, the explosion would be more of a plop. After experimenting some, the students realized that with just the right amount of water and a 1/2 to a whole Alka-Selzer, they could produce a rocket explosion of up to fifteen feet or more! This relates to a multi-stage rocket in that when the film canister rocket explodes, it leaves pieces behind in stages. The film canister has two parts: the lid and the body, and when you put a paper top on the canister, this is a third part. The lid is left on the ground, the body flies up in the air, but in the process, it pushes the paper top further.
At the end of your investigation, ask your students these questions to encourage comprehension and higher-order thinking:
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