The cold weather did not deter Haahuupayak’s Grade 7 class from wowing onlookers by launching their rockets made from recycled materials on the morning of March 13.
Scott McLeod, a retired RCMP officer who has been running the John Howitt Rocketeers for five years now, approached the elementary school about participating in his rocketry program. He spent one hour a week mentoring the class on how to build real launchable rockets.
Sarah Stefiuk, a Grade 7 teacher at the school, said fabrication materials included old library cards, pool cards and debit cards.
“Everything that they have used has been recycled materials they either brought from their blue bin at home or we’ve saved from our school,” she said. “It’s been really cool to watch, it takes a lot to get them engaged and this really sparked their interest.”
The program is modelled after the University of Victoria’s Rocketry Team, a student-led group that designs and builds sounding rockets for competitions. They participated in the annual Spaceport America Cup (SA Cup), located at the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport located in southern New Mexico, United States, and just competed in the Launch Canada Challenge in Timmins, Ontario.
The Haahuupayak class was broken up into seven teams and used the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) method of education to build their rockets. STEM education is an approach to learning that integrates these four fields, fostering skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity through inquiry-based learning and real-world applications.
“We wanted to spark their imaginations now, before high school, so if they are interested, they can work towards becoming engineers, rocket scientists or astronauts,” McLeod told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
Before the launch the students gathered in the classroom and watched a video of congratulations from the UVic Rocketry Club, as well as a virtual tour of the club’s lab and run down of the rockets they have built.
After six weeks of work the Haahuupayak rockets were ready to be launched. The students stood in awe behind the blast board as their rockets shot up into the air leaving a trail of smoke behind them. Each launch was followed by a roar or cheers.
“I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was 6 years old,” exclaimed Sammii Fregrin from Uchucklesaht while proudly holding their team’s rocket.
“The program has been very successful and I have been asked to come back again next year” said McLeod.
