Woodland students launch their own rockets

WOODLAND — Norfolk Elementary School third-graders got to build and launch their own model rockets recently in the school’s field. Several staff members attended the launch day to ensure safety, including former teacher Leif Erickson, who introduced rocketry classes at Woodland Middle School. Teacher Brian Peterson worked with Erickson to teach the club at an elementary-school level. “Kids really enjoy building and launching model rockets,” Peterson said in a news release. “Learning about rockets generates a lot of excitement and interest both in science and in space travel.” “Some students worked as ‘spotters’ as we had rockets with parachutes that floated to a much larger launch area,” Erickson said in the release. “The farthest we had a rocket float was out to Horseshoe Lake – more than a mile away from the launch point.”