Teach Aerodynamics and Projectile Motion With Light-Up Sky Rockets

In addition to the work the teachers send home I have been teaching my kids "lessons" involving science, history and geography. With only two days a week at school I figured they need some extra teaching in these subjects. This year we are studying physics. National Geographic asked if I wanted to review some toys and this Light-Up Sky Rockets has been a perfect hands on lesson for my kids.

This blog post contains affiliate links. The Sky Rocket was provided in exchange for an honest review.Click here to find on Amazon

What's In the Box

The box includes: 3 rockets, 1 launch tube, a instructions and learning guide, 1 launch base and 1 foot pump.

The instructions and learning guide include a mini lesson on rockets, projectile physics and aerodynamics. It also includes a chart to record different angles and distance traveled for each rocket launch.

How Does It Work?

The Light-Up Sky Rocket set is super easy to use. That is what makes it so great. It can be used very easily right out of the box with little parent involvement. Some toys take a ton of parent involvement and the parent ends up doing most of the "playing". With this set and another from National Geographic the kits are very opened ended and easy for the kids to use on their own.

The launch base is set up by extending the legs. After that the launch tube is place on the base. Then the rocket is placed on the launch tube. The launch angle can be adjusted. By doing this kids can learn about how the angle affects the distance a rocket will travel.

The greater the launch angle the more it will travel vertically, straight into the sky. If the launch angle is smaller it will travel horizontally, traveling a further distance on the ground.

The rockets will also light up by pushing a button on the rocket.

The rocket can then be launched or stepping on the foot pad. The force on the foot pad causes the air to leave the foot pad and travel in the tube connected to the launch base. The force caused by this displaced air is then concentrated on the end of the rocket causing the rocket to lift off the rocket base. A greater force on the launch pad will produce a greater force in launching the rocket, making it travel further. We had my dad visiting. He jumped on it and it went super high.

Here is the path of the rocket going straight up into the air.

What Did We Think?

My son absolutely loved this toy. My daughter did too, but my son was super excited for it. He took it out a few times after we tried it the first time. My kids also took it out after dark to see the rockets light up.

I loved that there were three rockets to use. We had four kids playing with it at the same time. They all took turns, and got to hold the rockets waiting for their turn.

After we launched the rockets we did the lesson from the learning guide. My kids were super involved and were able to answer questions based on what they had learned while launched the rocket.

I would highly recommend this Sky Rocket set. It is affordable, sturdy, fun for the kiddos and a great learning toy. Click here to find on Amazon.