Curated OER
How do engineless planes stay aloft?
Fifth graders explore how a plane can stay aloft. In this engineless airplane flying lesson, 5th graders experiment to find how the design of a plane and Bernoulli's principle keep planes in the air. Student's create a plane and answer...
Curated OER
Gliders
Young scholars design and build a small glider. They see how the flight of a bird is similar to the flight of a sailplane. They explain how birds get their thrust and how they control their direction of flight.
Curated OER
John J. Montgomery: Controlling flight
Students research the history of aviation while looking at how gliders and airplanes fly. This lesson is the perfect way to intertwine Science and History. It has variations for all grade levels K-12.
Curated OER
Flying the Friendly Skies
Students investigate aerodynamics by comparing and contrasting the flight of two gliders. They make prediction and observation charts and test a variety of hypotheses using paper gliders.
NASA
Nasa: X1 Paper Glider Kit
This lesson allows students to build their own paper gliders and change characteristics of the glider to make it fly easier.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Activities and Videos: Force/energy
Videos that accompany activities that are hands-on challenges that focus on the engineering design process. They use simple materials, allow for multiple solutions, and are ideal for ages 9-12.
NASA
Nasa: History of Flight
How did we learn to fly? Resource takes users back through time to discover where the history of flight all started. Offers links to games, art and stories as well as activities.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Hoopster
Students create their own airplane using straws and other materials and learn the principles of aerodynamics.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Spinning Blimps
Students create a blimp and then experiment with the design to improve its aerodynamics.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Roto Copter
Students can experiment with a home-made helicopter that lets them change the blades to see how real aerodynamics work.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Paper Airplanes
At this site students will use origami to fold a paper airplane that fly better than the classic dart airplane.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms
Features 100 aircraft, airfields, research labs, military installations, battle sites, launch facilities, and other places that tell about people and events that made the U.S. a world leader in aviation. Highlights of this travel...
NASA
Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics
Includes exhaustive information and a wealth of activities pertaining to aerodynamics and the physics of flight.
Encyclopedia of Life
Encyclopedia of Life: Sugar Glider
The Encyclopedia of Life presents this in-depth overview of Sugar Gliders (Petaurus breviceps), including their habitats, size, conservation status, and much more. Images of this species and maps of its global distribution can also be...
Michigan Reach Out
Reach Out!: Making Paper Airplane Gliders
Students learn the fundamentals of aerodynamics in this hands-on exercise.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Scientific American: Flying Free: Winging It
Explore flight and the science behind lift and wing shape by creating two paper airplanes - a monoplane glider and a ring-wing glider.
The Henry Ford
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village: Wright Brothers
Brief history of the lives and accomplishments of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Includes a chronology of major events from Wilbur's birth in 1867 to Orville's death in 1948.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Science Italian Style: Renaissance Machines
Investigate innovative machine designs of the Renaissance, then build a hang glider by following a set of instructions. Modify the design to create a model that can fly longer distances.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Us Early Aviation History
A comprehensive overview with detailed facts about early aviation, aviators, and the airline industry.
Science4Fun
Science4 Fun: Invention of Airplane
Learn about the early efforts to fly, the Wright brothers first successful flight in 1903, and the modern airplane.