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Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: The Weird and Wonderful Metamorphosis of the Butterfly

For Students 9th - 10th
Franziska Bauer explains how a butterfly emerges from squishy larvae to an armored, aerodynamic, and nimble adult.
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Lesson Plan
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)

Smile: Lab Work: Come Fly With Me

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This site by the Illinois Institute of Technology lets students use a vacuum cleaner hose, ping pong balls, straws and other materials to investigate the effect of moving air upon the surfaces which it hits. Principles are applied as...
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Activity
Museum of Science

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago: Activities: Make and Fly a Helicopter

For Students 3rd - 8th
Print and cut out the template for the helicopter. Then experiment with adding and subtracting weight, or changing the shape of the copter or the blades to see what makes it fly best.
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Why Do Birds Fly in a v Formation?

For Students 9th - 10th
In this science fair project, the student will make a wind tunnel to test how the formation of birds in flight affects flight efficiency. Make the bird models out of Legos and have fun with this project. The Science Buddies project ideas...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Learning Lab: How Things Fly: Activities for Teaching Flight

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Through this series of three lessons, young scholars will gain an understanding of the basics of flight. They will learn about the four forces of flight and practice their observation skills through a number of fun experiments. In...
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Website
NASA

Beginners Guide to Model Rockets

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides numerous links that will give teachers and students an overview of rocketry.
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Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Interactive Experiments

For Students 9th - 10th
Three interactives in an online exhibition about the Wright Brothers. The first is an engineering activity on the forces of flight, and is accompanied by a lesson plan for Grades 6-8. The second is a gallery of original artifacts related...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Up, Up and Away! Airplanes

For Teachers 4th - 6th
The airplanes unit begins with a lesson on how airplanes create lift, which involves a discussion of air pressure and how wings use Bernoulli's Principle to change air pressure. Following the lessons on lift, students explore the other...
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Unit Plan
South Carolina Educational Television

Know It All Media: Nasa Online

For Students 9th - 10th
Find award-winning science, math and technology videos and interactives for grades K-12 produced by NASA and provided for distribution to South Carolina ETV's Knowitall.
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Lesson Plan
Discovery Education

Discovery Education: Science of Everyday Life: The Everyday Science of Sports [Pdf]

For Teachers 6th - 9th
A lesson plan where students learn about the physics behind golf balls. Students evaluate different designs of golf balls to understand how their design impacts their function. After their evaluation, students will try to improve the...
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Website
Exploratorium

Exploratorium: Sport Science

For Students 9th - 10th
In this colorful and interactive resource, students can learn about the science behind baseball, hockey, cycling, skateboarding, and surfing.
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Unit Plan
Other

Plane Math: Activities: Go Fly a Kite

For Students 9th - 10th
Students work in groups to build their own kite. The activity explores estimation, geometry, measurement, and patterns. The resource consists of a lesson plan, group activity instructions, lesson overview, and an expert page.
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Design and Launch Bottle Rockets

For Students 3rd - 5th
If you want to discover what makes rockets fly, this is an activity for you. You can even add different features, like fins, a nose cone, and a parachute to find out how these alter the flight!
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Activity
Exploratorium

Exploratorium: Paper Airplanes

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site students will use origami to fold a paper airplane that fly better than the classic dart airplane.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Heavy Helicopters

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students learn about weight and drag forces by making paper helicopters and measuring how adding more weight affects the time it takes for the helicopters to fall to the ground.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Blow and Go Parachute

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students make a skydiver and parachute contraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. Gravity pulls the skydiver toward the Earth, while the air trapped by the...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What a Drag

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students learn about friction and drag - two different forces that convert energy of motion to heat. Both forces can act on a moving object and decrease its velocity. Students learn examples of friction and drag, and suggest ways to...
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Website
PBS

Pbs Nova: Pilot the Wright Brothers' Flyer

For Students 3rd - 8th
In this interactive, find out how the Wright brothers' design of the first flyer provided lift and speed, and allowed the pilot to make adjustments in response to changes in wind speed and direction.
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Article
A&E Television

History.com: The History of Flight: From Breakthroughs to Disasters

For Students 9th - 10th
From hot-air balloons floating over Paris to a dirigible crashing over New Jersey, here are some of the biggest moments of aviation history. Below is a timeline of humans' obsession with flight, from da Vinci to drones. Fasten your...
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Unit Plan
NASA

Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from NASA discusses application of Newton's first law of motion to airplane motion. Includes a graphic and an accompanying explanation.
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Unit Plan
NASA

Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from NASA provides a graphic depicting Newton's second law. Graphic is accompanied by an explanation. Part of a larger site with additional information on Newton's laws.
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Lesson Plan
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)

Smile: Airplanes (2 3)

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
This paper airplane lesson plan helps students learn about certain concepts like air resistance, motion, and aerodynamics.
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Flight Simulators: From Flaps to Flying

For Students 6th - 8th
Before pilots ever step behind the controls of a real jet they've already logged thousands of virtual air miles. It might not qualify you to fly a real jumbo jet, but you too, can learn the logistics of aviation by experimenting with the...
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Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Engineered Sports

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students work in teams to investigate how aerospace engineering relates to sports, especially golf ball design and the physics of bounce. They use this information to determine whether these aerospace principles can be applied to...

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