Last fall, 7th grade students at the Mid-Prairie Middle School started a study of the universe with a trip to the Iowa City Science Center’s Space Pioneers Exhibit. When they concluded the unit, they fired off rockets.

Taught by science teacher Chris Soldat (who is one of three Iowa finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching), the students moved on to the University of Iowa to see the pioneering work done there toward space exploration.

It was followed by an intensive study of planet Jupiter, the solar system and the cratering of the moons on Jupiter.

In the middle of the school year, the 7th graders visited the Challenger Center in Des Moines where they simulated a rendezvous with a comet as they guided a mock-up space craft on three separate missions.

In the last two months of school, students studied design and aerodynamics of the flight of rockets, then constructed and tested their own pop-bottle rockets.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Aerospace Foundation, students were able to obtain materials and build their own model rockets.

On the final day of school last month, they blasted the rockets approximately 250 feet into the air.