Airplanes

Sandra E. Broomes              Sherman 
                               1000 W. 52nd Street
                               Chicago IL 60609
                               (312) 535-1757

Objectives: 

Designed for Grades 2 & 3.  To develop and experiment with flying.  To 
understand basic principals of energy of motion.  To make and fly paper 
airplanes. 

Materials Needed:

Materials listed are for groups of four.

paper      
pencil
tape
paper clips
pop cans (empty)
string
toy helicopter
balloon             

Strategy:

Take two sheets of paper the same size.  Crumple one of the papers into a ball. 
Hold the crumpled paper and the flat paper high above our head.  Drop them both 
at the same time.  The force of gravity pulls them both downward.  Which paper 
falls to the ground first?   What seems to keep the flat sheet from falling 
quickly? 

Draw a picture of a plane on the board.  Write the word lift above the plane.  
We say the wings give a plane lift and makes a plane go up.  Gravity below, drag 
behind and thrust in front.  Ask the students what these words mean.  These four 
forces are always working on paper planes as well as real airplanes. 

Take a balloon blow it up and let it go.  This will show thrust which makes the 
balloon zoom across the room.  The students will experiment with blowing between 
the two empty pop cans.  We discuss the Bernoulli's  Principle. 

Each group will make a helicopter and fly it off the 3rd floor.  We will go on 
to make several different styles and designs of paper planes. 

Performance Assessment:

Work in groups of four and discuss answers to the questions.  Write down results 
on how planes were made and how long they were able to fly.  Did their 
helicopter fly when launched?   Which way did it fly?   Students will have the 
actual paper helicopter and plane as the result of the experiment.