Science buddies is organising Rocket Catcher 2025 Engineering Challenge. The last date of submission is March 17.
About the Challenge
Can you build a rocket-catching device to help a falling rocket land vertically without crashing? The higher the falling distance, and the fewer materials you use to build it, the higher your score. Students across the globe are invited to try the 2025 Engineering Challenge and submit their results by March 17, 2025, to be entered (where eligible) in random drawings for $10,000 in prizes. We are excited to see what you build!
Challenge Instructions
Challenge instructions are available in these four formats:
- Rocket Catcher Lesson Plans
- Student Instructions for Rocket Catcher Challenge
Who can Enter?
Primary and secondary school students in all countries are invited to participate in this challenge. Students can work individually or in teams of up to four students. Each student team should follow the challenge instructions to build and test their rocket-catching device. Teams may try the challenge as many times as they want but can only submit one score.
Students may participate on more than one team, as long as the teams are formed under different circumstances and have different rocket-catching device designs. For example, a student can be on a team formed in their school and participate on a team formed at a youth program, public library, or scouting program. The student may not submit identical designs for both teams.
The highest scoring teams, regardless of country of origin, who follow all the building and testing rules listed in the challenge instructions, will be publicly recognized at the conclusion of the challenge on the challenge results page. In addition, all teams who participate will receive (through an email to their adult contact) a certificate of participation.
How to Submit?
Submissions will be accepted from February 16, 2025 through March 17, 2025. All submissions must be made through our online entry form; the link to this form will be available from this page and open for entries starting February 16, 2025. The submission form will close on March 17, 2025, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.
All submissions will require:
- Name and email address of an adult contact
- Name and street address of the sponsoring school or organization (homeschool teams may put a home address)
- A team name (the name must be in good taste and cannot contain any offensive words or slurs)
- Average age of team members
- Number of students on the team
- Team score and fall distance
- Two photos:
- A photo showing the team with the rocket and rocket-catching device. (If sharing photos of students violates your school’s/organization’s photo policy, you may submit photos without students.)
- A close-up photo showing the rocket in/on the rocket-catching device after being caught.
Prizes
Teams that follow the rules in the challenge instructions, are from eligible locations, and submit an entry using the online submission form will be entered in random prize drawings for ten $1,000 USD prizes. Eligible locations include United States (including American Samoa, DoD schools, Guam, Northern Mariana, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands), Canada, and Australia.
Random drawing prizes are not dependent on the team’s score. The prize money will be awarded to the team’s sponsoring school or nonprofit organization. A school or organization may receive a maximum of one prize. The more teams a school or organization submits scores for, the higher their odds of winning. Make sure to enter all of your teams!
Homeschool students in the United States, Canada, and Australia are also eligible to be entered in the random prize drawings. Should a homeschool team win, they will be asked to choose a youth or educational nonprofit organization to receive the prize money.
Contact
If you have questions, please consult the FAQ. If you do not find the information you need there, please contact us at engineeringchallenge@sciencebuddies.org.
