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High school science tends to be rather basic. Here is a way you can make F=ma really fun. You can buy model rocket kits in bulk for education from many vendors. I like the people at this site a lot: http://www.apogeerockets.com/

Get a kit for each kid, or one for each team of two, and make them go home and build them. They can handle it. These kits are easy enough for a 4 year old with little testors and a little elmers. (I know because my son assembled one at that age (except for the parachute)) Then teach some of the physics... calculate how high, how fast, etc, and then go launch them! Use of an appropriately small motor will allow you launch on the football field. Actually the site above has a whole education section, with educational materials, technical info, newsletters, rocket kits in bulk, etc.

I know it's not free, but I bet you could get a local hobby shop to sponsor the activity, or even hit up us /.ers. $10 each from 20 people would get you enough for 24 rockets!

I already have an SR-72.

http://www.apogeerockets.com/SR72_Darkbird_Kit.asp

It doesn't go 4,000mph, though. It just sits there. I think I was ripped off.

since I would hope you wouldn't need much of a bang to move in the Martian gravity

Martian gravity is 0.38g, so the 180kg rover would weigh in at 72kg equivalent force, or around 150lbs for the metric challenged.

If by smallest model rocket engines you are referring to these babies, then you are definitely out of luck... they only produce force on the hundred-gram scale. Furthermore, considering that model rocket engines typically do not come with its own oxygen source, I expect that light atmosphere conditions on Mars would decrease the burn rate, and only make the output less.

So it prolly ain't gonna work unless you attach a custom-built rocket, then you might as well spend the money on making the Rover less prone to getting stuck....

Well to paraphrase a rather sad movie "you call that a rocket, .... this is a rocket

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The sound waves could easily pulverize a human's skeleton if he was unlucky enough to be within a mile of the launch pad. Even at further distances, the sound waves felt like someone was thumping on your chest with their fists.

(posting as A.C. so Uncle Sham doesn't try to profile me as a terrorist ;)

I do high-power model rocketry as a hobby. My rocketry activities/spending is sharply curtailed right now until the legislative stuff and the lawsuit against ATF for capricious regulation are heading in a clearer direction.

In my sparse free time lately, I am starting to develop a GPL rocket simulation app for Linux (there is little available that isn't for Windows), with an eye toward having some features comparable to RockSim that runs under Windows. While I know this doesn't truly match the topic, it has spurred me to brush up on some of my college mathematics work (at least up through ODEs), as well as studying some aerodynamics theory/modeling. Of course, this will also tie into some Newtonian physics as well, especially when I start work on the radial and longitudinal rotational inertias of a design from the mass and distribution of its individual parts...

Also, I'm interested in doing some rocketry avionics design (onboard altimeters, other telemetry payloads, etc.), and have done some studying in that direction as well.

Finally, I've been doing some studying lately on how to do tile mosaics, with an eye toward trying my hand at it around the house.

Let's face it, we geeks tend to have geeky hobbies! ;)

That depends on where you live and how you're travelling. You can't take the morors on an airplane, for example (this has been true for years), but driving is OK. Also, there are small composite motors that are below the 62.5 gram limit but have not been certified in all states (e.g. California) and thus are not legal to posess in those states.

It's a shame -- I'd love to use some of the mini-composite motors -- they have serious lift for their weight.

Adult "born again rocketeers" are building larger, faster, and more powerful rockets -- and the kids are following suit.

In all these cases, we've taken the manufacturing boom and used it to support our hobbies. It's not the same as tinkering with low-level parts and raw materials, but in the end you still learn a whole lot about physics, materials science, electronics, etc.