Students reach for new learning heights with a rocket launch - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

A group of fourth through sixth graders are spending the whole week building and designing their very own rocket models.

The students are attending Space Exploration camp at Morningside College.

And the highlight of their week, marching over to Bass Field to launch their rockets.

Students learned about air transportation, weather, the atmosphere, and the international space station through hands-on activities.

But the real fun, involved the very supervised use of explosives.

"It's a lot of fun and you do a lot of activities, and you don't have homework," Caden Peters, a camp participant said.

"You will learn a lot and it's very fun," Ryan Simpson, a camp participant said.

"I think this week actually gives the students an opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills and apply it to activities that we provide, in terms of geology, aerospace education, math, and science," Connie Richardson Smith, a coordinator of the space exploration camp, said.

In addition to building rockets, the students also got to check out moon rocks that NASA loaned to the college.