Plains admin joins rocket project

Plains High School is letting an adult join its physics class and he doesn't even have to study or take tests, but he gets to play in the annual rocketry project. Maybe he's getting special treatment because he's the school superintendent.

Thom Chisholm started making his rocket on Thursday, though he admitted he got a lot of glue on his hands and maybe too much on the rocket parts. At one point, he glued part of the rocket to the directions. "I have so much glue on this guy, it might not leave the launch pad," said Chisholm. He's been the superintendent for 12 years, a history teacher there for six years and shop teacher for 11 years, but this is the first time he's participated in one of Carl Benson's fun science projects. "I wanted to do this in tribute to Mr. Benson," said Chisholm, who has watched some of the class launchings in previous years.

Benson retires in May after 38 years as a teacher at Plains High School. He's also building a rocket for the project, something he's done only three or four times since starting the rocketry curriculum some 31 years ago. For his last final rocket launch, the class is going to send their missiles up at night, a suggestion from Grace Horton, one of eight girls and three boys in Benson's physics class of all seniors. "It's not something that adds to the science part, but it's just more for the kids," said Benson, who wanted to do something special for his last rocket project.

"I wanted to do something different and this is a good way to do it," said the 61-year-old Benson, who has incorporated other fun projects into his science classes, including an egg drop, bridge crush and a model airplane flight, but he said the rocket one is his favorite. The rocket lesson teaches the concepts of momentum and energy. It helps students understand the mathematical equation portion of the lesson, said Benson, who added that the hands-on approach of building and launching the hobby rockets allows the students to observe what they're learning in the classroom. For the night launch, the rockets will be coated with glow-in-the-dark paint that Benson got from the art class so the students will be able to watch their ships go up. Benson said one problem with the night flight is he doesn't want to attach the altimeters to the rockets because he doesn't want to take a chance of losing them.

The students finished their rockets last week and have an array of bright colors on them. Madison Elliott plans to title her rocket "To Infinity and Beyond," said Benson. Chisholm might put the message on his rocket – "God Speed Mr. B, enjoy retirement." Benson and Chisholm, however, aren't going with the same rocket kit the students used. They are using the Mercury Redstone kit, a historical representation of the ship that took America's first men in space in the 1960s. While the students' rockets are only 12 inches tall, the Mercury ones are 26.6 inches with a circumference of just over two inches. The ones of Benson and Chisholm are considered advanced skill level kits, but use the same C-6-5 engines as the smaller rockets.

"I believe that participating with the students in their projects adds value and importance to what the students are learning, hence the involvement by me and Carl," said the 53-year-old Chisholm, who also looks at the project as a bit of competition. Benson said the bigger rockets won't go as high or travel as fast as the lighter students' rockets, but Chisholm jokingly insists he'll win. "I think we're going to sabotage the kids so we win," he said. Chisholm's son, Duncan, participated in the rocket project last year, as did Benson's two boys, Cole and Bryce, years before.

It took Benson and Chisholm four days to complete their rockets, working on them about an hour a day. Both said they liked building the kits. Chisholm said he still has his collection of model logging trucks he erected as a kid. For the project, Benson one year made a space shuttle, which separated from the booster a few seconds after launching. Another year, he built a Saturn rocket, the largest he's ever done for the class project. He plans to paint "Bon Voyage!" on his Mercury rocket.

"I want the students to see Mr. Benson as a human and his participation relates to him being a student of science also," said Chisholm, adding that showing the students is a great pedagogy for student learning. He also noted that projects such as the rockets make the mathematics and textbook learning become real life. "It brings the students full circle in their understanding that education matters to the rest of life and society," he said.

Benson said he's looking forward to launch time. "It should be exciting. We've never launched at night before." He hopes not to scare neighbors with his night launch. He's pleased that he's been able to add fun to the lessons and in some ways hopes his replacement can continue with the same success, although he said he'd also like to see whoever it is "develop their own history like I did mine." And even though he likes making rockets, he said it's more fun to help the students with theirs. Plans are to launch the rockets in April, but he said it's dependent on good weather.