Local students literally launched their learning Wednesday morning.

Jackie Leatherman/News-Herald Photo Lake Havasu High School senior Jon Curry, pictured left, watches at Howard Noble secures Curry’s paper rocket onto the piping that will eventually help to launch it.

Three Lake Havasu High School special needs classes made paper rockets and launched them with the help of a bicycle pump and plastic piping Wednesday morning.

The students placed the open bottoms of their rockets on an open end of plastic piping — the piping eventually connected to a bicycle pump. The students took turns pumping to build 50 pounds of air pressure into the piping, before releasing a valve allowing the air to force their rocket into the immediate atmosphere.

LHHS teacher Karen Vanderjagt said she saw the demonstration at a local community festival and thought it would be a great way to incorporate academic lessons for her students.

Vanderjagt said students learned about turning two-dimensional shapes into three-dimensional shapes, measurements, and science.

Sophomore Josh Waelchli said he thought the exercise was “good.”

“We are actually learning about how to make rockets,” he said. “We actually learned how to make the rockets using length and width.”

Waelchli added that he thought the rockets were “going to go all the way to outer space.”

Howard Noble from the Mohave County Arizona Cooperative Extension office brought the rocket launchers for the students and taught them how to use them.

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@havasunews.com