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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Design a Bobsled

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students apply their knowledge of friction, drag, mass and gravity as they design, build, and test mini-bobsleds.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight

For Teachers 5th - 8th
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...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

What a Drag!

For Teachers 5th - 7th Standards
Stop and drop what is in your hand! Pupils investigate how form effects drag in the 12th part of a 22-part unit on aviation. Groups create equally weighted objects and determine which one falls the fastest by collecting data.
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Lesson Plan
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Teach Engineering

May the Force Be With You: Drag

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Do not let friction drag you down! The 11th segment in a series of 22 focuses on the fourth force acting upon an airplane—drag. Pupils learn about the effects and causes of drag.
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Lesson Plan
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Playing with Parachutes

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
This lesson certainly will not be a drag! Little engineers design parachutes that make use of air resistance and, as a result, slow the descent of the payload as much as possible. It is an opportunity to teach about many motion concepts:...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Blow-and-Go Parachute

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students design a skydiver and parachute constraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. They experience how gravity pulls the skydiver toward the earth and how...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Computing the Net Force

For Students 4th - 6th
Adorable little stick figures push and pull a cart of blocks to explain the push and pull of forces. Future physicists then define force and identify it in different situations on the instructional activity that follows. Concepts covered...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Graphing the Four Forces

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rescue Mission Game

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students conduct probability experiments. In this rescue mission lesson plan, sudents play a game and collect statistical data. They organize and interpret the data and determine the probability of success. Students plot points on a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Crash Course in Flight

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Physics of Flight

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Three activities allow young flight engineers to understand the 4 principles of flight (weight, lift, thrust, and drag), to construct a glider, and to create a propeller. Multicultural history and literature are integrated by reading...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Makes Airplanes Fly?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Learners 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. 
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PPT
Curated OER

Forces

For Teachers 6th - 9th
These simple slides are basic, but clear, in their summary of physical forces. Definitions of friction, air resistance, gravity, freefall and projectiles are given along with a couple of helpful diagrams. More examples always help to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Applied Science -Technology (6B) Pre Lab

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders discuss how simple machines overcome friction. In this simple machine lesson, 6th graders review the parts of a plane and how they make up for gravity and friction. They roll different objects down an inclined board...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boomerangs Keep Coming Back

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Learners investigate the flight of paper boomerangs. In this flight instructional activity, students examine the flight variables of paper boomerangs, which they make, by investigating the concepts of lift and drag. They examine what...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Understanding the Four Forces of Flight

For Students 4th - 5th
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.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Kite building activity

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore how a kite flies; this instructional activity is a precursor for the windmill activity. By exploring how a kite flies, the students explore the power of the wind; particulary how drag, lifft and gravity enable objects...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Design a Parachute

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students engage in a discussion about what a parachute is and how it works. They create a parachute using different materials that they think will work best. The students test their designs, which will be followed by a class discussion...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

TE Activity: Heavy Helicopters

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students study the concepts of weight and drag while making paper helicopters. They measure how adding more weight to the helicopter changes the time for the helicopter to fall to the ground. They apply what they examine to the work of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Flight

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners 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 their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Makes Thing Fly?

For Teachers 2nd
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. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

DOWNHILL DISCOVERIES

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students studykinetic energy, friction, drag and acceleration by relating it to the Winter Olympics.  In this physical properties lesson students create tracks and determine how the course conditions affect bobsled, luge and downhill ski...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Does Shape Affect Drag?

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Learners study drag and how it affects a parachute in the sky.  In this parachutes lesson students build models and compare their drag. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

100 Years of Flight

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students investigate Bernoulli's principle of air pressure and how it relates to the lift of an airplane. Students identify various Aeronautical vocabulary terms. Students construct a paper glider and experiment with the control surfaces...