With a quick yank of a rope, the green bottle wrapped in duct tape whooshed into the air over Lakebottom Park.
As intended, the bright orange tip of Wesley Heights Elementary School's bottle rocket came off, making way for a parachute that eased the vessel back to the ground.
"It really worked out well," said Jennifer Hurtt, who led Wesley Heights' team in the countywide Elementary Science Olympics Saturday at Columbus High School.
Nearly 300 elementary school students from 18 schools built bridges with Popsicle sticks, fashioned paper airplanes and shot off bottle rockets, competing in 14 science-related activities.
Each event carried with it different lessons. Building the bottle rockets -- from deciding its shape to selecting its materials -- is an exercise in aerodynamics, said Tommie Ford, a science teacher at Arnold Magnet Academywho was running the bottle rocket event.
But the education doesn't stop there. Whether the students know it or not, they are watching scientist Isaac Newton's Third Law when their rockets are shot into the sky. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction at work, Ford said.
Activities in the science olympics challenge students to draw on principles of math, biology, logic and other academic disciplines, said Gail Sinkule, a Columbus High teacher who has coordinated the olympics for 12 years. Next month, Sinkule will become president of the Georgia State Science Teachers Association.
"It's putting together different skills," Sinkule said.
Standing in a courtyard, Hannan Elementary teacher Elia Moran watched as her team competed in an egg drop. To soften their eggs' fall, students were allowed only two wire coat hangers, paper clips, rubber bands and masking tape.
"They don't see it as learning," Moran said. "They don't realize they are."
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