Rocket Launches at Smith-Cotton Symbolic of Seniors’ Future

After reading October Sky in Corissa Beck's English IV class at Smith-Cotton High School, senior students constructed their own non-explosive rockets and launched them on the north lawn of the campus Monday afternoon.

The launches took place under clear blue skies and no wind.

This is the second year for this project in Ms. Beck's class. She spoke with KSIS during the outdoor classroom experience and explained what was going on.

“My seniors just read October Sky, and in the novel, the “rocket boys” created rockets to launch, and so I'm letting my students create rockets to launch off as well,” Beck said adding that she thought it was great that a reporter was on the scene, “because in the novel, there's a news journalist for the newspaper that does a story on the rocket boys, so it's kind of like the same thing now, and my students get to have a story covered on them.”

Beck said this was her second time doing a rocket launch with her seniors. “It's usually pretty successful, it's non-explosive. They find ways to make their rocket launch, without fire or anything. So it's safe, you know,” Beck told KSIS, adding that “they have some really creative ways to make their rockets launch, and I'm really proud of them” referring to her 50 seniors (in two separate English IV classes).

“We're making the rockets come to life, just like in the novel, and we're ending the school year, because they're getting ready to go off, or launch, into adult worlds,” Beck said symbolically.