While some people only get to launch rockets on New Year’s Eve or the Fourth of July, students at Akins have the opportunity to do it all year long.

The rockets class is not just a fun elective to take. It is part of a sequence of classes in the STEM Academy called Aerospace Engineering.

Students in this class design build and launch their own rockets one semester and work with larger rockets the second semester. Along the way, the students learn science, math and engineering related to aerospace as well as Physics to building a complex rocket.

Engineering teacher John Sayce said students typically build three small rockets in the fall semester.

“The first one they build it anyway they want and just have fun even if its a failure,” Sayce said. “Then they realize they can’t build it anyway they want so the second one we teach them all about designing a rocket and the science behind it.”

When they build  the second rocket, the class uses a rocket simulator tool that allows students to pre-model it and see how it will fly. On the final rocket they build during the fall, they try to make it fly as possible so the students put a lot of effort into it, he said.

During the spring semester, the students work on improving their rocket designs as they learn new concepts and manufacturing techniques.

“The class is great. It’s really interesting to take because of the engineering and math that you put into building your rocket,” junior Dylan Gentry said.

Rocket building is an individualized process. Students use certain materials to be able to build them to the quality needed to fly their rockets.

“Students work independently on their rocket,” senior Valeria Serna said. “They build them to certain standards and requirements. At the end of the year we work together as a team to build our own big rocket.”

This class is offered only to students with certain prerequisite classes under their belt such as Intro to Engineering Design, Principles of Engineering and Digital Electronics.

These classes are offered to STEM students that want to pursue engineering as a major in college.

The rockets class does not distinguish senior level from junior level as they both are gaining skills necessary for career focuses in the category of science, technology engineering and math.

“Both seniors and juniors are expected to deliver a functioning and high quality rocket,” Serna said. “They will not only learn that but be able to take the skills they learn here out into college and into the real world.”

Engineering teacher John Sayce leads the Rockets class, which is part of the Aerospace Engineering major.

“Mr. Sayce is actually one of my favorite teachers I have ever had,” Gentry said. “He’s straight to the point about things and is pretty good at taking something complicated and making it simple to understand.”

“The class isn’t very difficult if you’re solid with basic arithmetic and algebra, the only real problem might be the motivation to do the work,” Gentry said.