Curated OER
Design a Bobsled
Students apply their knowledge of friction, drag, mass and gravity as they design, build, and test mini-bobsleds.
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...
Teach Engineering
What a Drag!
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.
Teach Engineering
May the Force Be With You: Drag
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.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Playing with Parachutes
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:...
Curated OER
Blow-and-Go Parachute
Learners 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...
Curated OER
Computing the Net Force
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 worksheet that follows. Concepts covered include...
Curated OER
Graphing the Four 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...
Curated OER
Rescue Mission Game
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...
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
The Physics of Flight
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...
Curated OER
What Makes Airplanes Fly?
Students examine force and conduct activities that model parachutes and helicopters. In this airplanes lesson plan students identify the forces that make airplanes fly higher and land.
Curated OER
Forces
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...
Curated OER
Applied Science -Technology (6B) Pre Lab
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...
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
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
Kite building activity
Learners explore how a kite flies; this lesson 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 such as kites and...
Curated OER
Design a Parachute
Middle schoolers 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...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Heavy Helicopters
Learners 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...
Curated OER
Flight
Students 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...
Curated OER
What Makes Thing Fly?
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.
Curated OER
DOWNHILL DISCOVERIES
Students studykinetic energy, friction, drag and acceleration by relating it to the Winter Olympics. In this physical properties instructional activity students create tracks and determine how the course conditions affect bobsled, luge...
Curated OER
Does Shape Affect Drag?
Students study drag and how it affects a parachute in the sky. In this parachutes lesson students build models and compare their drag.
Curated OER
100 Years of Flight
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...