You will need:

• A balloon
• A balloon pump
• String
• Drinking straw
• A peg
• Sticky tape
• Scissors

Method:

1. Firstly, you will need to inflate your balloon.  You can either do this by using your balloon pump or you can do this yourself, that is up to you to choose.  But make sure you do not tie a knot in the balloon, just hold it closed.
2. Next you will need to take the peg and use it to squeeze the balloon shut so no air can escape.
3. Now you can take the drinking straw and cut it in half using your scissors.
4. Then using the sticky tape you can stick the half a drinking straw to the side of the balloon (see in photo).
5. For this next step you must feed the string through the half a drinking straw and stretch it out over a small distance.  You can either tie the string down to a surface of ask someone else to hold the other end of the string.
6. Everything is set up now, so if you’d like you can decorate your balloon, add other features, or even make a second balloon rocket, if you want to of course.
7. Finally, all you need to do is remove the peg and watch you balloon rocket launch away.
8. Thankfully it is easy to inflate your balloon again so you can do this for a second time.  Remember if you want to make a second one you can and it might be fun to have them race?  Enjoy.

The Science Bit:

The air from the balloon pump is contained inside the balloon creating a strong force.  When that for is released is can be quite powerful, depending on how much air you put into the balloon.  When released normally a balloon can fly around the area uncontrollably.  For this experiment the drinking straw and strong provide a homemade track for the balloon to stay on a straight path avoiding as much uncontrollable movements as possible.  All of this creates a miniature rocket that is safe and lots of fun to do at home. Thank you for reading Fun Scientists.