The middle schoolers have just begun their fourth cycle, Forces of Change. We will learn about scientific forces, types of energy and Newton’s laws for our science unit, which we started on Tuesday. Our first lesson was a review of kinetic and potential energy, and we talked about different types of potential energy, such as mechanical potential energy, elastic potential energy, and chemical potential energy. To find out more about elastic potential energy, we constructed a rubber-band powered rocket. The rocket launcher was a short cardboard tube with a rubber band taped across one end, and the rocket was made of two straws taped together parallel to each other with a space between them. When we slipped the rubber band between the straws, pulled back on them to stretch the band, and let go, the rocket was launched. Here we are testing our rocket outside.