Curated OER
The Aspect Ratio of Wings
Junior engineers examine aspect ration in airplane wings. Using the length and width of two differetn wings, they calculate the aspect ratios and compare drag rankings. An engineering or space science class would benefit from this...
Teach Engineering
May the Force Be With You: Lift
Get the class up and going with a activity that discusses how airplane wings provide lift. Pupils use their knowledge of Bernoulli's Principle to develop an explanation of how it creates lift on airplane wings.
Curated OER
Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
Curated OER
Lift and Launch Angle
Students engage in a hands-on experiment to determine how launch angles affect airflow around the wing of an aircraft. They view a series of photographs and read information describing the Wright Brothers' experiences. They complete a...
Curated OER
Crash Course in Flight
High school physicists demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle by blowing on different items and finding that they do not move in the expected direction! They apply Bernoulli's equation to the flight of an airplane. This well-organized lesson...
Curated OER
Principles of Flight: Bernoulli's Lift
Students discover how air pressure effects flight. Â In this physics lesson, students create two types of airplane wings so they can observe the way air pressure creates lift. Â Students utilize a printout to create the airplane wings.
Teach Engineering
Windy Tunnel
Lift—it is about the wing's attack. Using a virtual wind tunnel, pupils investigate wing shape and angle of attack. Learners use worksheets to record their observations and to convert verbal relationships into mathematical equations in...
Curated OER
The Lift Equation
Students use the FoilSim educational software program to complete an activity regarding lift. They solve a multivariable equation for each of the variables and apply the results to various problems in different situations.
Curated OER
Airplane Wings
Students examine the aerodynamics of a wing and how it generates lift. In this flight lesson students complete several experiments including how to build a paper plane and how airfoils affect performance.
Curated OER
Airplanes
Students practice multiplication using factors to 5. They discuss the wings of birds and the wings of airplanes and complete activity sheet. Afterwards, they number and draw groups of airplanes.
Curated OER
Boomerangs Keep Coming Back
Students investigate the flight of paper boomerangs. In this flight lesson, students examine the flight variables of paper boomerangs, which they make, by investigating the concepts of lift and drag. They examine what happens when an...
Curated OER
Wing Area Effects Problem Set
Students read an explanation from a NASA Web-based textbook on lift and an explanation on the FoilSim software package given below. They use FoilSim to evaluate the relationship between wing area and lift.
Curated OER
Lift vs. Airspeed
Students, after reading the explanation given below, use FoilSim and a graphing calculator to complete the activity to determine the relationship between airspeed and lift of an object by interpreting data.
Teach Engineering
Balsa Glider Competition
Change one variable and try again. Teams build basic balsa gliders and collect data on their flight distances and times. Through collaboration, the team decides on two modifications to make to the basic design and collect data for the...
CK-12 Foundation
Airplane
How does an airplane control its take off and descent? Scholars explore the forces acting on an airplane and control the angle of attack, wing profile, thrust, and airplane size. They learn about lift, drag, thrust, gravity, and the...
Curated OER
Design of Airfoil for Given Lift
Pupils use FoilSim to design an airplane wing that generates a given lift. As they change parameters such as airspeed, altitude, angle of attack, thickness and curvature of the airfoil, and size of the wing area, the software calculates...
Curated OER
Four-Wing Paper Boomerang
Young scholars build a four-wing paper boomerang. In this aeronautics lesson, students construct a paper boomerang and identify the forces at work during flight.
Curated OER
Lift Relationships
Students use FoilSim (downloadable) to determine how lift is affected by varying parameters on the Airfoil simulation.
Curated OER
Wing Shapes and Areas
Students, after reading the explanation given below, use FoilSim to determine the weight of the aircraft that can be lifted by a pair of wings of each type. They also design a unique platform of a wing to lift a plane weighing 11500 pounds.
Curated OER
Mimicking Nature; Science, Aviation, Flight, Wings
Learners consider the relationship between form and flight and investigate the history of man made flight and how wing shape and flexibility affects the maneuverability of an aircraft.
Curated OER
Showing the Lift Equation
Pupils read an explanation from a NASA Web-based textbook, then demonstrate an understanding of the text by using it, along with FoilSim, to complete an activity that manipulates the lift coefficient equation.
Curated OER
Understanding the Four Forces of Flight
In this four forces of flight worksheet, students read a 1 page article on flights, answer 5 questions with multiple choice answers, draw a line to connect the four forces to their definitions and answer 1 short answer scenario.
Curated OER
Multiplication Mysteries
Arithmetic apprentices practice problem solving and multiplication with a lift-the-flap pair of reproducibles. In this Halloween mathematics activity, math monsters practice multiplication by making candy corn calculations. They practice...
DiscoverE
Build a Better Boomerang
This isn't the boomerang you're used to. Scholars first see how a commercial boomerang works. They then cut out a four-wing boomerang and test its flight to compare it to that of the commercial boomerang.