How Big Are Your Wings?

In this birds learning exercise, students read ten clues that pertain to birds and determine the answer from the word box. Students then use the answers to complete a crossword puzzle.

Students explore birds, their territory, breeding, and seasonal movement. They research and collect information on birds through writing letters to ornithologists, reading in books, comparing web sites, and observing pictures. Students...

Young scholars investigate ways to enhance an object's flying ability.  In this model construction lesson, students construct two paper airplanes, one of which is twice as big as the first.  Young scholars compare and contrast the two...

Groups explore concepts of flight by creating paper airplanes from different types of paper and testing their flight. They use the results to identify the optimal material.

Flight seems like an important adaptive advantage, so why did some birds lose their ability to take to the skies? A video from the PBS Eons series explains the evolutionary paths of different species of birds while emphasizing the...

Richly illustrated interactive activity leads you through an investigation of bird wings. Includes interesting comparisons of the bones in a bird's wings with those in human arms and of the design of wings in birds versus planes.

Students create imaginary creature that has some of the adaptations birds have.

Keep everything under control. The lesson, the 16th segment in a 22-part unit, provides a more detailed look at the parts of a plane, specifically the control surfaces. Pupils learn about the construction of the wings and the tails and...

Sixth graders explore physics by utilizing their math skills. In this flight properties lesson, 6th graders examine the flying capabilities of planes and birds. Students utilize math to find how many wing-beats are needed to keep a bird...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] There is an amazingly wide variety of birds. Birds are vertebrates. Almost all have forelimbs modified as wings, but not all birds can fly. Learn more about birds in...