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...

Using the Cartesian coordinate system, future flight experts plot points to determine whether or not an airplane will fly. With the four forces of weight, lift, drag, and thrust represented in different quadrants, your physics learners...

Young scholars are introduced to the four forces of flight--drag, lift, thrust, and weight--through a variety of fun-filled flight experiments. They "fly" for short periods and evaluate factors that might either increase or decrease...

Students investigate the effect that weight has on rocket flight. They construct a variety of straw-launched rockets that have different weights, observe what happens when the weight of a rocket is altered by reducing its physical size...

Learners explore the four forces of flight. They investigate the four forces of flight: lift, drag, thrust and weight (gravity). They experiment with flight-testing various objects commonly found around the house and constructing paper...

Students will examine the physics of flight through using experimental inquiry. In this lesson, you'll introduce your students to the four forces of flight--drag, lift, thrust, and weight--through a variety of fun-filled flight...

Ninth graders utilize Newton's Laws of Motion to explain how things move, create poster illustrating each law of motion, and present and explain their poster to classmates.

Students are introduced to two of the four principles of flight: drag and thrust. As the class watches a video on these principles, they utilize ballons, straws and clothepins to simulate what they're seeing in the show. Nice, hands-on...

Fifth graders explore drag, thrust, lift and weight.  For this airplane lesson, 5th graders define the forces that effect airplanes and design a model airplane.  Students  compare their models for the...

Students utilize the process of scientific inquiry and technological design to explain thrust, weight, lift and drag in flight. They design an "airplane" to test the "mechanics" of flight. In addition, they brainstorm and sketch a design...

Students examine force and conduct activities that model parachutes and helicopters.  In this airplanes lesson students identify the forces that make airplanes fly higher and land. 

Students investigate the flight of paper boomerangs. In this flight activity, 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...

Second graders study lift, drag and thrust from a real flight instructor.  In this physical science lesson students build and fly paper airplanes and experiment with variations and design. 

Test the limits of gravity while encouraging full class participation with this thrilling lesson. Pupils investigate the meaning of work and how it is equivalent to energy. They explore the joule and apply it as a unit of work. They...

Students investigate technology and its many designs to make our lives easy. For this science lesson, students build a hot air balloon and answer specific questions about weight and rides in the hot air balloon. They analyze their data...

Students examine forces that effect flight.  In this flight lesson students answer questions that are asked of them and the ones that they ask themselves. 

Students investigate the physics of flight through various experiments. In this physics lesson, students construct different flying objects. They explain the dynamics that make these object fly.

Students explain basic principles of aeronautics such as gravity and lift. In this How Things Fly lesson, students visit the interactive, hands-on How Things Fly gallery at the Smithsonian. Students perform three experiments that...

Fourth graders compare and contrast gliding flight and true flight. They investigate the basic principles of aeronautics. The class participates in activities to observe lift and the effect of air. Students design and fly their own...

Young scholars see the difference between weight and mass when they examine the method of measuring each of them.

Students construct a paper glider. For this physics of gliding lesson, students first learn about Borneo and it's rainforest habitat. After students discover the way animals in Borneo glide from tree to tree, they use their newly...

Students discover the basic principles of aerodynamics, including the roles and identity of natural forces involved. They examine how the force of gravity is overcome by the curved shape of an airplane wing and air pressure.

Learners explain how drag, weight, lift and thrust work together to make something fly. In this physics lesson, students measure their jump height and record data on the table. They reason out why they can't remain airborne for long.

Young scholars explore how pendulums work and why they are useful in everyday applications. In a hands-on activity, they experiment with string length, pendulum weight and angle of release.