On July 15 at 10 a.m., 13 kids came to Boothbay Region High School to experience the wonderful world of bottle rockets with teachers Chip Schwehm and Desiree Scorcia.

The kids each took an empty 2-liter bottle, formed a nose cone and fins out of stiff paper, and poured some water into the bottle. Outside next to the Seahawks Snack Shack, Schwehm and Scorcia pumped air into the bottles using a portable air compressor and warned everyone to stand back. With a quick pull on the release cord, the bottles shot into the air before coming to rest on the field. The kids made flags, which they used to mark the spot their rockets fell.

Of the first three rockets shot off, two shot straight forward, one farther than the other. The third rocket took everyone by surprise by shooting up and backwards, landing farther up the hill than the kids were standing.

Even with some light rain coming down during launch time, the kids were eager and excited, and shouted with glee when the rockets took off.

This is a project Schwehm has done many times before, but never with younger kids.

“Barb House asked me if I could do a program for kids this summer, and the idea of bottle rockets fit,” Schwehm said. “It's low-tech and safe, and allows the kids to experiment.”

The rocket designs varied widely. Kids put in different levels of water to test how that would affect the range of the rocket. They used different sizes and shapes for the nose cone and fins, with some using simple double fins and others getting fancy with zigzag cut outs or multiple fins.

Both teachers helped and encouraged the kids’ imaginations. Rather than critiquing designs, they made suggestions to improve them such as, “I like your fin design. I might suggest making them a bit bigger,” and, “Nice job on the nose cone — let's see what happens if we fold it like this instead.”

This event was part of the “Fizz, Boom, Read” program week run by the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, sponsored by CLICK.