https://nifa.usda.gov/ 

program/4-h-positiveyouth-development 

National Institute 

of Food 

and Agriculture 

United States 

Department of 

Agriculture 

LESSON PLAN: ACTIVITY 3.13 

LESSON DETAILS INTRODUCTION 

ROCKET POWER CHALLENGE III 

A FEDERAL PARTNERSHIP FOR STEM EDUCATION 

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS

FOR LIFE 

National Aeronautics 

and Space 

Administration 

 

AGE/GRADE LEVEL 

High School 

LEARNER OUTCOMES 

Youth will identify ways to efectively 

communicate with members of a 

team, recognize there are many 

diferent solutions to solving 

problems, and define teamwork and 

team roles. 

SUCCESS INDICATORS 

Youth will act cooperatively, keep 

calm in interpersonal conflicts, and 

actively work to ensure a positive 

team attitude. 

LIFE SKILLS 

Critical thinking and innovation, 

collaboration, social skills 

NATIONAL STANDARDS 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1 

Prepare for and participate efectively in a range of conversations and 

collaborations with diverse partners, 

building on others’ ideas and 

expressing their own clearly 

and persuasively. 

21st Century Learning and Innovation Skills: Learning and innovation 

skills increasingly are being recognized as the skills that separate 

students who are prepared for 

increasingly complex life and work 

environments in the 21st century, 

and those who are not. A focus on 

creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration is essential 

to prepare students for the future. 

PREP TIME 

15 minutes for room set up 

ACTIVITY TIME 

60 minutes 

MATERIALS LIST 

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device 

More supplies may be needed 

depending upon the size of the group 

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team (Team Leader, Builder 1, Builder 

2, Timekeeper/Supply Manager) 

HANDOUTS 

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SUGGESTED SPACE 

Indoors, one table or other flat 

surface for each team 

SUGGESTED GROUP SIZE 

4 youth per team, any number of 

teams can be involved 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION 

Share after the first task has been 

completed and the Conflict Table 

is being discussed. The teacher 

or facilitator will need to switch 

between background information 

and table as the discussion unfolds. 

REFERENCES 

The Importance of Recognizing Roles 

in a Team 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ 

importance-recognizing-rolesteam-31499.html 

The Biggest Mistake You (Probably) 

Make with Teams 

https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-biggest-mistake-you-probab 

Teams are groups of individuals 

working together toward common 

goals. A team role is the way we 

behave, contribute and interact with 

others. 

The diference between team failure and success 

depends on the behavior of team members. 

Recognizing various team roles allows you to 

match the skills needed to reach the goal with 

the appropriate team member who has those 

skills. 

Teams tend to work better together if the 

members recognize their individual roles. A 

team’s ability to work together improves when 

the roles of individual team members are clearly 

defined and well understood. 

Consider a team of doctors and nurses working 

in a hospital emergency room. Before the next 

ambulance to arrives, they have no idea of the 

nature of the task ahead. Will the patient require 

surgery, heart resuscitation, medications? The 

condition of the next patient is unknown; the 

tasks that will be required of the team, ambiguous. But at no time while the team waits, do 

they negotiate roles: “Who would like to administer the anesthesia? Who will set out the 

instruments? Who will make key decisions?” 

Each role is clear. As a result, when the patient 

arrives, the team is able to move quickly into 

action. 

It’s one thing to join a team, but quite another to 

perform as a team member. To put it simply, 

teams don’t work without teamwork, and for 

teamwork to take place, every team member 

must play their role.. 

continued next page >> 
PAGE 2

LESSON PLAN: ACTIVITY 3.13 

ROCKET POWER CHALLENGE III, CONTINUED 

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS

FOR LIFE 

>> continued from previous page 

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS 

INTRODUCTION ACTIVITY (10 MINUTES) 

Ask and discuss with youth: 

1. Review: Why do people work on teams? What is the 

purpose of a team? What makes a good/bad team 

member? 

2. Give examples of roles people have in the working 

world and family life. What do roles have to do with 

teamwork? 

3. Review the Engineering Design Process introduced in 

Challenge I. 

ACTIVTY: TEAM ROLES (15 MINUTES) 

Explain today we are going to do an engineering activity 

that will expand on the roles used in Challenge Lesson II. 

The building challenges will be to build a rocket and a 

rocket launch pad. In addition we will focus on keeping 

one role instead of experiencing multiple roles. 

The roles will again be: 

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team on time, assists building when asked by Team Leader 

Explain that the youth will be working on a team to 

complete a task. 

1. Assign youth into teams of 4 with each team at their 

own table or other level surface. 

2. Hand out supplies. Give each team 12 pieces of 

spaghetti, 10 marshmallows and 10 gumdrops. Tell the 

youth not to touch or eat the supplies. 

3. Review the team roles. Based on their Challenge II 

experience, team members should determine what 

role each person will have: 1 Leader, 2 Builders and 1 

Supply Manager/Timekeeper. 

4. Tell the youth they will have to work together and build 

a model of a rocket and a launch pad. 

5. The goal is to make an improved rocket from their 

Challenge II Lesson that is freestanding and as tall as 

possible. The rocket launch pad should support the 

rocket and must touch the rocket 

6. Have the youth briefly discuss and make a plan what 

their rocket and launch pad may look like and how to 

use the supplies. The Team Leader leads this and asks 

for help from the team. 

7. Allow the teams to begin to build. Remind them of the 

12 minute timeline. Display a countdown clock or 

timers for the Timekeepers to watch. As time ticks 

down, do not remind the youth of the amount of time 

remaining; let the Timekeeper for each group keep 

track. 

8. Approximately half way through, do a temporary 

“pause.” Allow 30 seconds for team leaders only to 

survey the other teams’ building projects to gather 

ideas that might assist their team with their own 

construction. Allow teams to continue and finish up 

after this break. 

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from their tables/models. 

10. Allow each Team Leader to showcase their final model 

design. Use the yardstick to measure final rocket 

model height. Use class applause to celebrate all of 

the teams’ eforts! 

continued next page >> 
PAGE 3

LESSON PLAN: ACTIVITY 3.13 

ROCKET POWER CHALLENGE III, CONTINUED 

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS

FOR LIFE 

>> continued from previous page 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (10 MINUTES) 

1. How could your team have been more efective in the 

building process? How do roles afect this? 

2. What does it mean to be an engineer? What skills are 

required by engineers to complete tasks? 

3. How did the Engineering Cycle help your team? If you 

did not use it, how could it have helped? 

4. Is strong communication important to a team? Why or 

why not? What are some ways to communicate 

efectively with others to solve a problem? 

5. How did the results of your rocket difer from the first 

trial? How did the assigning of roles afect this? 

Discuss the importance of roles in the activity and how it 

relates to the importance of roles in the working world and 

family life. 

DEBRIEF ACTIVITY: SUNBURST (10 MINUTES) 

MATERIALS LIST 

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piece of yellow paper, lengthwise) 

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DIrections: 

1. Give each youth a marker and a triangular piece of 

paper 

2. Have each youth write a reflection on the paper (i.e. 

what you have learned from this experience/program, 

what the experience/program has meant to you, what 

you enjoyed most from this experience/program). 

Participants may color the triangles too. 

3. Write the name of the program on the half circle and 

tape it on the wall about waist high so youth can reach 

to attach the higher triangles. Make sure there is 

enough space overall so youth can tape their triangles 

along the rounded part of the center section. 

4. When everyone is done, have each youth tape up their 

triangle (stagger each row between the existing 

triangles) along the center section so the triangles 

look like rays of the sun. 

Discussion: 

Look over what youth wrote on the triangles and share 

some aloud. Conclude with some reflections on the 

group’s experience. Leave the “sunburst” up for everyone 

to see and read the various responses. 

APPLIED CHALLENGE: RELAY RACE 

(15 MINUTES) 

MATERIALS LIST 

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Directions: 

1. Designate a starting point. Place a cone 50 yards from 

the starting line. Ask the group to stand in a single file 

line at the starting point. Give the first one in line the 

ball. 

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cone and back. 

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will form a circle. The group goal is to pass the ball as 

quickly as possible around the circle. 

4. Explain these rules: 

5. Every person in the group has to touch the ball, but 

only one person can be touching the ball at a time. 

6. After everyone in the group has touched the ball they 

should sit down to show they are done. 

7. Let them do this activity one time and then ask them 

to assign each other roles in the race according to their 

strengths. Do the activity one more time and see if 

they are faster. 

Discussion: 

What helped your group work well together? (Sharing 

ideas, listening, encouraging each other, etc.) 

What made working together more difcult? (Lots of 

diferent perspectives, lack of communication, etc.) 

How does this activity relate to your daily lives? How can 

you use these ideas to help you? 

continued next page >> 
PAGE4

LESSON PLAN: ACTIVITY 3.13 

ROCKET POWER CHALLENGE III, CONTINUED 

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS

FOR LIFE 

>> continued from previous page 

Instructor says: “Sometimes working with a lot of diferent people can be a challenge because we each have 

diferent points of view and diferent ways of communicating. When we listen to each other and share ideas, we 

can use all of the unique ideas and individual talents to 

solve problems and work through difcult situations.” 

FUN FACTS 

The International Space Station orbits the earth every 90 

minutes at the speed of 17,150 miles per hour (5 miles per 

second). That means that the crew experiences sunrise 

and sunset 16 times a day. 

DID YOU KNOW 

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helped to create a 4-H TV/video curriculum called “Blue 

Sky Below My Feet--Adventures in Space Technology” in 

1985. The series had three 30-minute video programs 

about forces and gravity, space clothes and space food. 

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destruction of the Challenger space shuttle. 

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES 
ACTIVITY 3.13: LEARNER ASSESSMENT 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

Q1

Q2 

Q3 

I understand the importance of listening to the ideas of all 

team members before taking action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I understand the importance of planning before taking 

action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I understand the importance of analyzing the results of my 

work. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

ACTIVITY 3.13: LEARNER ASSESSMENT 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

Q1

Q2 

Q3 

I understand the importance of listening to the ideas of all 

team members before taking action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I understand the importance of planning before taking 

action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I understand the importance of analyzing the results of my 

work. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

ACTIVITY 3.13: LEARNER ASSESSMENT 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

Q1

Q2 

Q3 

I understand the importance of listening to the ideas of all 

team members before taking action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I understand the importance of planning before taking 

action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

I understand the importance of analyzing the results of my 

work. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

ACTIVITY 3.13: LEARNER ASSESSMENT 

These questions are about things you learned during this 

activity. Please check the circle that best describes you. 

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS 

FOR LIFE

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS 

FOR LIFE 

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS 

FOR LIFE

EXPEDITIONARY

SKILLS 

FOR LIFE 

Q1 I understand the importance of listening to the ideas of all 

team members before taking action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

Q2 I understand the importance of planning before taking 

action. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me 

Q3 I understand the importance of analyzing the results of my 

work. 

Not at all like me 

A little like me 

Somewhat like me 

A lot like me