10 Steps to Do the Rocket Catcher Challenge!

Follow the 10 steps below to do the 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge with your students! The Rocket Catcher Challenge is a fun and accessible space science activity for students in grades K-12.

The 2025 Rocket Catcher Challenge is an exciting way to have students try engineering. As they design, build, test, and improve their rocket catcher devices, students will be using the engineering design process, engaging with relevant, cutting-edge space science, and gaining confidence in themselves as engineers.

With separate worksheets and lesson plans available for elementary, middle, and high school, as well as individual student project directions, the 2025 Engineering Challenge is designed to get students of all ages excited about engineering. The challenge is accessible to students at all grade levels around the world and can be done in a wide range of learning environments, including the classroom, at home, or in out-of-school, after-school, and community programs.

Ready to get started?

10 Steps to Do the Rocket Catcher Challenge

1

Introduce the Rocket Catcher Challenge and watch the video overview.

2

Review the directions. Directions for the 2025 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge are available in multiple formats. Lesson plans include a worksheet students can use to document their Rocket Catcher Challenge project and solution. The rules, materials, and scoring are the same, so use the copy most applicable to your student(s):

• Elementary School Rocket Catcher Challenge Lesson Plan
• Middle School Rocket Catcher Challenge Lesson Plan
• High School Rocket Catcher Challenge Lesson Plan
• Rocket Catcher Challenge (independent student project)

3

Review the steps of the Engineering Design Process and watch the Engineering Design Process video.

Tip! Reviewing the Engineering Design Process helps students understand how to approach designing, testing, and iterating to troubleshoot and improve their rocket catcher devices. For additional resources, see 4 Ways to Teach Engineering Design.

4

Review the rules and the allowable materials for the Rocket Catcher Challenge. The challenge uses simple, low-cost materials, including paper, tape, and paper clips, which makes gathering materials easy!

Tip! Make sure students understand how materials are counted when calculating the final score for their rocket catcher devices. Finding a balance between materials costs and increasing the fall distance is part of the challenge!

5

Talk about the science involved. Building rocket catcher devices involves a range of STEM concepts. To reinforce the STEM learning, you may want to discuss:

• Kinetic and potential energy
• Conservation of energy
• Aerodynamic forces, including drag and lift
• Aerodynamic stability
• Material properties, like density, stiffness, and strength

(For additional resources to teach about energy, see 13 Activities and Lessons to Teach Potential and Kinetic Energy and 26 Science Projects and Experiments To Teach About Types of Energy.)

6

Brainstorm and sketch ideas. Have students sketch ideas for their rocket catcher devices and any (optional) modifications they want to make to their rockets. What design elements do they plan to use to achieve the "vertical" landing angle required for the challenge? Sketching their ideas (or drawing diagrams like the ones shown below) helps students think through how their device will work and what materials they plan to use. (Tip! Student worksheets included with the lesson plans contain space and guidance for brainstorming solutions.)

Middle and High School Teachers: Since there are points (or "costs") associated with materials, you might suggest that students note costs on their sketches so that they are thinking about that from the beginning.

The overview video shows several rocket catcher device examples, but there are lots of ways students might approach designing a rocket catcher using the available materials.

• How will their device "catch" the rocket?
• What will help ensure the "vertical" angle of the landed rocket?
• What changes will help with successful landings from higher distances?
• How will they elevate their device the minimum distance from the ground?
• Are there modifications they want to make to the rocket? Why?
• Are there places where they can reduce the amount of materials used?

After thinking about (and sketching) multiple options, have students choose the design they think will result in a rocket catcher that will reliably result in a successful catch from the greatest fall distance.

7

(Optional) Team up! Students can work in teams of 1-4 on their solutions. This is a great way to practice teamwork and communication skills! When they pool their ideas and troubleshooting, students have the benefit of multiple perspectives. Plus, working together to solve the challenge is a lot of fun! Don't forget to pick a team name. No matter what size the team is, it needs a name!

8

Design, build, and iterate. Remind students that engineering involves building, testing, and making design changes to work out problems and to continue to improve their rocket catchers. Designs don't always work the first time, and even when they do, they can usually be improved. Troubleshooting and making changes is part of the engineering process! Be sure to encourage early testing so that students have time to make changes to try to improve their devices. The video below helps demonstrate the concept of iteration.

9

Test the rocket catchers and calculate scores. Set a deadline for students to finish building their devices. Review the testing protocol and how to take the necessary measurements and calculate final scores. Students will need to record their starting distance (to calculate the fall distance) and use the worksheet to calculate the final score. The following video walks through how to calculate the score for the Rocket Catcher Challenge:

Reminder: Two consecutive successful catches from the same distance are required for this year's challenge.

10

Enter for a chance to win! Submissions for the 2025 Rocket Catcher Challenge will be accepted February 16-March 17, 2025. All K-12 students/teams, regardless of location, are invited to submit their solution to compete for a high score.

To enter the contest, students will need their:

• Team name
• Number of team members and average age of team
• Final score (rounded to the nearest whole number)
• Fall distance in centimeters (rounded to the nearest whole number)
• Two photos, one showing the rocket that has landed in the rocket catcher and one of the rocket and rocket catcher with the team (if possible). (Two different photos are required for the submission to be counted.)

Tip! Team entry forms are available in the lesson plans to make it easier for teachers to gather information about each team's submission.

Prizes: Students in listed geographic regions, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, will be automatically entered in random drawings for prize money to be awarded to the winning team's school or organization. (Note: See the Engineering Challenge page for rules, eligibility, and complete prize information.)

Questions?

You will find answers to many questions in the FAQ for the Rocket Catcher Challenge. If other questions come up, please email us at engineeringchallenge@sciencebuddies.org.

What about video? Video footage documenting the Rocket Catcher Challenge is not required, but videos can be a fun way to record and share classroom testing! If you share videos in social media, be sure to tag us and also add #RocketCatcherChallenge and #ScienceBuddiesEngineeringChallenge. (Only images can be uploaded when entering the challenge.)

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