Wright Brothers Lesson Plans

Learners explore how historians reconstruct historical events. They examine and interpret primary and secondary source documents about the Wright brothers. Using these documents and working in groups, they write a historical narrative.

Students test their knowledge of the Wright brothers by playing "Hollywood Squares." They read (or listen) with comprehension. Students follow the rules as they actively participate in a game to test their reading (or listening) comprehension.

Students research the history of flight from the past 100 years. In this flight lesson, students read articles about the Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, and Space Shuttle astronauts. They pretend to be a newspaper reporter and do a story on one of these famous people.

Students participate in the 100th anniversary of the first flight. In groups, they use the internet to research the roles of the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart in promoting the use of flight and the space race. To end the lesson, they use the information to write and publish their own news article about the event.

In this lesson students analyze the Wright Brothers appreciation for the scientific process. They study their hypothesis/test/evaluation of flight. In this lesson students publish a glossary for the Wright Brothers. They produce a travel brochure for the Wright Brothers travels.

8th graders explore Bernoulli's Principle to airplane design.  In this physic lesson, 8th graders explore and analyze primary source images of various examples of flight by grouping images by similarities. They explore how Bernoulli's Principle was applied to the Wright Brothers first flights.

Students explore the lives of the Wright Brothers and creat a student-made documentary highlighting the factors that allowed them to succeed at flight. They develop an electronic portfolio to analyze and explain the factors that led to their flight. They work in groups to create these portfolios and a dramatic presentation for the class.

In this lesson students describe the challenges faced by the Wright brothers during their flight experiments and how they overcame them to achieve controlled powered flight on December 17, 1903.

In this lesson students research the events that were important in the Wright brothers' lives. They develop an accurate timeline of those events and discover why the Wright brothers are important in history.

Students study primary source materials from Wright Brothers exhibition and create a brief biography of Wilbur or Orville Wright. The class combines individual student work to create a biography in the form of an illustrated timeline.