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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Rocket launch timer

A free animated classroom timer: a rocket burning down its fuel, and the engines light and it lifts off at zero. Any length, counting down or up, with the clock a small chip in the corner.

3:00

Keys: Space start or pause · R reset · ← → 30 seconds · 1 8 the presets · S next scene · U count up or down · C move or hide the clock · M sound · H hear the sound · F full screen

How to use it

  1. Press Start, or Space. The picture is the time: a rocket burning down its fuel, and the engines light and it lifts off at zero.
  2. It opens at 3 minutes. Press a preset, or Custom to type a length such as 7:30; press U to count up to the time instead of down to zero.
  3. Press F to fill the screen, C to move or hide the clock chip, M for the sound and H to hear it first.

Ideas for class

  • Use it for the last three minutes before a lesson ends, so the end is a launch rather than a bell.
  • Give a class a job to finish before lift-off and let the fuel gauge be the warning.
  • Count down to an event with it: the last minute of a presentation, the start of a performance.
  • Run it counting up while a group builds the rocket's gantry piece by piece.
  • Use the ten-bar gauge with a class learning to read a scale: each bar is a tenth of the time.

Related

Questions

Does the rocket actually launch?

Yes. The engines light in the last tenth of the time and it leaves the pad at zero, with a countdown blip and a rumble if the sound is on. Press Reset and it is back on the pad ready to go again.

Can I use it for a real countdown, like a school event?

For anything under a hundred hours, yes: type the length in the Custom box, press Start and leave it on the projector. For days until a date, use the countdown page instead, which works the date out for you.

Will the rocket launch timer keep the right time if I switch tabs?

Yes. The timer compares the clock when you pressed Start with the clock now, so a sleeping tab, a slow laptop or a dropped frame cannot make it drift, and the picture is drawn from the time rather than from its own speed.

Is it really free, and does it need an account?

Free, no account, no ads, and nothing about your class leaves the computer: the length, the picture and the direction live in the address after the # so you can bookmark or share them, and that part is never sent to us.

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