Blast Off

Fun stuff!

"I think it was cool," he said. "I want to do it again."It was the first time Jayshua, a home-schooled student, had participated in the program, and it wasn't a tough decision for a science class, said Darrie Nelson, Jayshua's dad and teacher.

"He likes space, he likes things that fly, he's just starting to get into that stuff," he said.

The was the third time the Rueb family attended the event.

Though the Rueb children, Michael, 11, and Logan, 9, also are home-schooled, the activity was one of pure adulation for them this time around. It also helped that the rockets worked. Last spring, Bonnie Rueb said, most of the rockets blew apart rather than heading skyward.

"It's an inexpensive fun, and how often can you do something this cool that's scientific for six bucks?" Rueb said. "And it's good for the kids to interact with the university students."About 12 UWSP students are in the Society of Physics students, and each fall and spring the students offer the program to pique youngsters' interest in sciences. The group is supervised by Greg Taft, associate professor of physics. There will be two more programs in the spring, one for home-schooled students and another for other interested kids.

We did some rocket science with our flight/outer space fixated kid. I was gathering up materials that we've used over the years for a homeschooling seminar and ran into the Estes Educator publication that we received years ago.

I remember doing this with my siblings. I think it was Big Bertha that had a payload. The egg wasn't so successful, but the mouse trip to the central Illinois clouds was. I'm sure the disgusting critter was gratified but I didn't hang around to find out when it exited. Hate mice!