Teams make last-minute adjustments to their water bottle rockets before testing their designs. (Jennifer Scott/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

With a water bottle and some industrial duct tape, students from UT Tyler University Academy at Tyler put their engineering skills to the test Friday morning as they designed and launched bottle rockets at The Discovery Science Place in Tyler.

The event was part of Engineers Week, a nationwide initiative promoting STEM education. The Discovery Science Place embraced the celebration with a series of hands-on activities designed to engage students in engineering concepts.

“Each day, we’ve done different activities – testing buoyancy with foil boats, building Lego towers, and constructing marshmallow and toothpick bridges – to give kids hands-on engineering experience,” said Bradley Lindsey, director of education at The Discovery Science Place.

UT Tyler University Academy at Tyler, which follows a project-based learning (PBL) model, participated in the week’s festivities with a hands-on lesson in rocketry. Eighth and ninth grade students worked in teams to design, build, and launch water bottle rockets, learning about propulsion and altitude calculation in the process.

“Hopefully they’re having a fun day, kind of learning about rocket launches and what good rocket design might look like,” said En-Tze Chong, UT Tyler Academy campus engineering and science teacher. “We launched a few rockets earlier, we kind of purposely chose ones that were a little bit high performing and then a couple really janky ones.”

To construct their rockets, students used materials such as cardboard, plastic cones, and hot glue. Water served as the propellant, while an air pump pressurized the bottles before launch. PVC pipes provided a stable base for liftoff.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” said Ace Nipps, a freshman at the academy. “I like trigonometry and love doing hands-on stuff. That’s why I really like this school. It’s more difficult work than probably a public school but it’s smaller and a good place to be able to do stuff like this.”

Engineers Week at The Discovery Science Place reinforced the academy’s hands-on PBL philosophy.

“The Discovery Science Place having Engineers Week and opening to the public events goes hand-in-hand with that philosophy,” Chong said. “The other part would be just trying to foster that interest in STEM careers that we’re hoping our students are graduating from high school and college with.”

The UT Tyler Chemical Engineering Department collaborated on the project, with university students demonstrating CO2 rockets alongside the water bottle rockets. This side-by-side comparison allowed the students to explore different forces of propulsion at work in each design.

University students demonstrated CO2 rockets, which use stored gas for propulsion, unlike water bottle rockets that rely on pressurized air and water. The comparison helped students see how different forces affect rocket motion and stability

“Anytime you can take kids out of the classroom and into a different environment, it creates a whole new element of learning,” Lindsey said. “It breaks the routine, making it more likely that the information sticks because they can tie it to the place they experienced it.”

Research supports project-based learning, highlighting its effectiveness in engaging students and fostering deeper understanding.

“The goal of those models is to provide more hands-on learning activities because what research would find is that students learn better and they have more meaningful, lasting knowledge if it’s through kind of hands-on activities,” Chong said.

Beyond teaching chemistry, physics, and engineering, Chong also emphasizes character development, encouraging students to be engaged citizens and role models.

“I’m also trying to be a good example,” Chong said. “I want my students to come out of school having learned how to be a good human being, a good citizen—just how to be in the world. They show up for me, and they really go above and beyond at these events to make it a fun and engaging experience for the kids below them. They’re interested and happy to pass on the same lessons they’ve learned to those who are younger, and those are the kind of principles you want to foster in your students.”

That same spirit of teamwork and learning was evident as students tested their rocket designs. Some soared high, while others fell short, but each launch was a chance to improve.

“It’s just good to have that hands-on creativity—to build your own rocket, see what works, and test if the flaps you make help the rocket fly straight or not. It’s a lot of trial and error,” Lindsey said. “And it’s just fun to launch rockets.”

For more information about The Discovery Science Place, visit www.discoveryscienceplace.org.