1. You need a plastic bottle. Pop bottles work best. Dr. Pepper is the best pop bottle. Water bottles tend to be made of plastic that is too soft, and don't fly well. Any soda pop 16 oz, 1/2 liter, or 20 oz bottle will work.

2. You need to bring in a material for wings. The material needs to be very strudy but also light wieght. Some types of plastic are good, luan plywood is good, cardboard can be good, as well as balsa wood.

3. If you are making the stratoblaster rocket, which is the type that we have had the most success with, you need to find a cardboard roll, either from a roll of toliet paper, or better, from a roll of paper towel. These form the nose cone of the rocket and tend to work real well. To make this type of rocket, you will also need a ping pong ball. Having some backup ping-pong balls is a good idea as well.

4. How are you going to decorate your rocket? You want to put on a custom show. We have had students spray paint their rocket, put glitter on their rocekt, and even put streamers on their rocket.

5. Are you planning on making a deployable parachute for extra credt? Fifften points can be the difference between a higher grade and alower grade. IT might be worth you while to do some research and figure out how to make this happen.