High Flyers
Students explore various aspects of flight and apply their knowledge by designing and testing paper planes.
What You Need
Materials:
- Five sheets of 8 ½ X 11 paper (standard printer paper works best)
- A measuring device (e.g., a measuring tape or metre stick)
Guide:
Slideshow:
Safety Notes
Paper should be handled gently to prevent paper cuts.
What To Do
- Explore and discuss the aspects of flight in airplanes and birds
- Provide instruction on how to build two common paper airplanes: dart and basic
- Announce that there will be a plane building tournament with three categories: distance, airtime, and precision
- Engage the students while they are building, present a slide with ideas, walk-through your own ideas
- Have the students post their results in the chat and keep track of who the winners are for each category
- Have an awards ceremony!
Discovery
We are describing how physics can be applied to flight and that all flight can be broken down into its forces.
It is important as it demonstrates accessibility to science and the importance of forces in every day life.
For younger age groups, introduce the concepts rather than doing a review.
What's Happening?
We are describing how physics can be applied to flight and that all flight can be broken down into its forces.
Why Does It Matter?
It is important as it demonstrates accessibility to science and the importance of forces in every day life.
Investigate Further
For younger age groups, introduce the concepts rather than doing a review.