Outreach Ideas
From LUNARwiki
We look at "Outreach Activities" as events, launches and other programs that actually involve the public in model rocketry. Check out the Public Relations page for discussion of activities that inform the public about model rocketry but doesn't directly involve them in flying.
State Science Fair
Ever since our club was formed 14 years ago members have participated as judges in the state finals of the Illinois State Junior Academy of Science science fair. We judge in the Aerospace division. While this doesn't directly promote our club or model rocketry, many of the projects involve model rockets and we feel our participation helps encourage the kids (mostly 7th and 8th grade) to continue in the hobby. While bringing in new people is important, retention of those new people once they get started is equally important. (Jonathan Sivier)
Park District Build & Fly
Our club is affiliated with the local park district and one part of our agreement is that we will hold model rocket workshops for kids. This works out fine for us. We held the build session this past Saturday, though the rain meant we were unable to fly. We gave the kids our summer flying schedule and hopefully they will come to the next launch and fly their rockets. (Jonathan Sivier)
Parent/Child (started as Father/Son) Build & Fly Event
LUNAR supports an annual Build & Fly Event held by a local Park & Rec department. We provide the support for launching and technical advice during the build session, but it's the Park & Rec Dept's program. It's usually held in June to coincide with Father's Day. Participants build Astra/SixShooter models in the morning. While the glue dries, there's a kid's science edutainment program put on, then we fly in the early afternoon. We've been doing it for over 3 years. Each year is sold out so we've expanded it every year. In 2005, we had over 80 families participate. (Craig Saunders)
Model rocket presentation for 5th graders
We were contacted by the teachers from a nearby grade school to come give a presentation on model rocketry. The kids will be building and flying their own rockets in the next couple of weeks. We were able to give them an overview of the hobby and let them know about our club and it's activities as well as information about the NAR and the resources available there. (Jonathan Sivier)
Big Brothers, Big Sisters Build & Fly
This coming weekend we will be doing a workshop for a nearby chapter of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization. This will be the second year we have done this program and hopefully it will become an annual event. This is a group of kids paired with adults who are looking for activities they can do together.
We feel model rocketry is an excellent activity for them. The kids all had adults helping them build their kits and last year they had a great time flying their rockets. We gave them information about our club and the NAR and we saw some of them at launches last summer. Hopefully that pattern will repeat again this year. (Jonathan Sivier)
Summer Aviation Camps
In the next couple of months we will be holding build and fly workshops for kids at a couple of local aviation summer camps. One is being held in June, run by a local aerospace museum. The other is in July and is run by the Aerospace Engineering Department of the University of Illinois. You might want to contact any local museums, aviation schools or universities about similar events in your area. (Jonathan Sivier)
Local School Launch
Recently my section (Launch Crue) held a rocket launch where we invited local K-12 students to come out and launch thier rockets (no fees on our part). We awarded some of the Quest kits that Quest Aerospace sent to many sections about a year ago as prizes for good flights and raffled some as door prizes. Unfortunatly, turn out was sort of low for this (less than a half dozen kids), but we did have a local photo journalist come out and we had a very nice (100% positive) article published in the county paper's Saturday edition. My father and another club member were on the front page! (Ryan)
4H, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA Indian Guides
LUNAR members work with individual groups (troops, packs, etc) to build and fly rockets. Often we will lead a build session as part of the normal group activity schedule and then the group flies their rockets at the next scheduled LUNAR launch. (If someone wants to break out more detail about how to work with these groups, let's do that.) (Craig Saunders)
Local Museums and Planetariums
In the SF Bay Area, we are blessed with many museums and planetariums. We've been trying to get programs going with a number of them but haven't scored paydirt yet. It's often difficult to match the museum's specific needs, so don't give up. (Craig Saunders)
Summer Reading Program
The Blue Mountain Rocketeers descended upon the Waitsburg Summer Reading Program to provide the boys and girls with a presentation on model rocketry. BMR's Section Advisor Tim Quigg provided a 30-minute presentation dealing with the hobby of model rocketry, including the NAR Safety Code, rocket vehicle composition, and model rocket motors. More information about the program can be found at [1] (Tim Quigg)
Junior ROTC Programs
Blue Mountain Rocketeers assisted the cadets of Colonel Steve Heflin's Jr. ROTC program at Clarkston High School in launching their model rocketry projects. More information about the program can be found at [2] (Tim Quigg)
