Curated OER
Forces, Controls And Aircraft Systems
Students are introduced to the physics of flight through video and PowerPoint presentations. They construct and fly model gliders and compete for height, distance, time, etc.
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Features and Limits of Aircraft Design
Students identify the desired features of an aircraft and the limits that they, the Wright Brothers, or NASA scientists might face in designing one, and methods to solve these. They review parts of an airplane and what makes it fly. They...
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Problems and Solutions in Aircraft Design
Students watch demonstrations of paper folded designs that do and do not fly and discuss their observations. They identify problems that they, the Wright Brothers, or NASA scientists face when designing an aircraft, and identify...
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Light Sport Aircraft Design Challenge
Students investigate aircraft design to learn many concepts of physics. For this aircraft design lesson, students use balsa wood and styrofoam to build an aircraft based on their study of wing designs, aviation, and through the use of an...
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Proportionality: Modeling the Future
Learners explore and examine how patterns, measurement, ratios and proportions are utilized in the research development and production of airplanes. They meet a pilot from the Federal Aviation Association who describes the growth of air...
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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...
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Cruising Aircraft and Balanced Forces
Students, after reading an explanation from a NASA Web-based textbook, demonstrate an understanding of the text by applying it to questions involving cruising aircraft and balanced forces.
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Radiation Comparison Before and After 9-11
Using the NASA website, class members try to determine if changes could be detected in cloud cover, temperature, and/or radiation measurements due to the lack of contrails that resulted from the halt in air traffic after the attacks of...
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Lifting Bodies: Designing Your Own Spacecraft
Students work cooperatively with classmates to design a wingless vehicle that can fly back to Earth from space, landing like an aircraft. Students plan and describe their models. Also, they will research facts about the lifting body...
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Aviation Pioneers
Students research the Wright Brothers historic first flight and design a travel poster asking for volunteers to participate. Write a newspaper account of the first flight and include how the local people may have felt about the Wright...
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The Shapes of Flight
Learners explore interaction between mathematics, science, and technology as they look at process of researching, developing, testing, and evaluating airplane design. They calculate glide ratio for model paper airplane by using data...
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A Clasroom Study of the Life of an Airplane
Students participate in an experiment to discover the properties of lift. They work together to complete calculations and collect data. They share their results with the class.
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Air Temperature and Kinetic Energy
Students use a NASA website do activities which help them better explain how air temperature and kinetic energy are related to aircraft propulsion.
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Forces in a Climb
Students use a NASA website to use a given formula to find acceleration and distance after a specific time and how it relates to engine propulsion.
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Inside the KAO
Pupils construct a 1/80th scale model of the interior of the KAO aircraft, or lay out a full-scale mock-up in their classroom or auditorium. they calculate the sizes of various sections of the cabin.
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Pitot Tube Problem Set
Students read a NASA Web-based text and use its information to complete an activity which uses a pitot tube to calculate the speed of an airplane.
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Where We've Been and Where We're Going
Learners travel with Christa McAuliffe through space demonstrations. In this space lesson, students follow through the past to the present air travel. Learners understand the benefits and problems associated with zero gravity and how it...
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Proportionality: The X-Plane Generation
Students meet NASA researchers who describe the relationship between force, energy and motion. They discuss how NASA's experimental X-plane is being tested to make space travel more reliable and show how proportionality and ratios are...
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The KAO Telescope
Students explore the basic principles of the operation of the NASA's KAO telescope. They construct a simplified model of it using film canisters and other everyday objects. Step by step directions are included in plan.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Wind Tunnel Testing
One of the factors that automotive engineers must consider is wind drag. The less wind drag, the more efficient the car will be. They perform many tests in wind tunnels, then refine their designs and test again. Using simple materials,...
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757 Glider Kit
Students work together to complete a 757 Glider kit. They use a GPS to discover how it operates in all weather landings. They complete different obstacles with the glider as well.
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Math: Will The Airplane Get Off the Ground?
Students use data from real-life models to calculate and compare the force required for an airplane of a given weight to become airborne. They use a graphing calculator to evaluate data and use the World Wide Web to access data.
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Dayna Lykins, Leanna Prater
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...
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Third from the Sun
Students examine images from space. In this third from the Sun lesson, students examine images from, Landsat, the satellite launched by NASA in 1972.