Curated OER
How do engineless planes stay aloft?
Fifth graders explore how a plane can stay aloft. In this engineless airplane flying instructional activity, 5th graders experiment to find how the design of a plane and Bernoulli's principle keep planes in the air. Student's create a...
Curated OER
Aerodynamics
Students discover the basic principles of aerodynamics, including the roles and identity of natural forces involved. They examine how the force of gravity is overcome by the curved shape of an airplane wing and air pressure.
Curated OER
Bernoulli's Principle: Wind and Wings
Students investigate Bernoulli's aeronautical discoveries. Working in groups they conduct simple experiments with paper that demonstrate how airplane wings work and how they are affected by air pressure.
Curated OER
Catch a Dream
Students apply the concepts of air pressure, the Bernoulli Effect, and angle of attack to build their own model planes out of paper, plastic, wooden rods, and drinking straws.
Curated OER
Flight Home
Students experiment to investigate the role in fixed-wing flight. They watch as air and water flow around surfaces to examine the dynamics of airflow around an aircraft wing.
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...
Curated OER
Aeronautics: Bernoulli's Principle
Students explore physics by participating in a science activity in class. In this flight properties lesson, students identify Bernoulli's principle of flight and his theory of statics and motion. Students conduct a demonstration by...
Curated OER
How Things Fly
Students explain basic principles of aeronautics such as gravity and lift. In this How Things Fly lesson, students visit the interactive, hands-on How Things Fly gallery at the Smithsonian. Students perform three experiments that...
Curated OER
Wright Flight
Students explain and explain the interactive relationships between forces of lift and gravity, thrust and drag, as they apply to airplanes in motion. They know that Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first airplane based on these...
Curated OER
How Things Fly
Middle schoolers conduct a series of hands-on experiments that help them explain the role of lift in fixed-wing flight. They observe the flow of air and water around several surfaces and then consider the dynamics of airflow around an...
Curated OER
Flying With The Wright Stuff
Students explore the history of flight, specifically the Wright brothers. Pupils create paper airplanes. They discuss considerations in building an aircraft such as drag, thrust, and weight. Classmates compare the Wright Brother's...
Curated OER
Rockets!!
Students launch a rocket. In this laws of motion activity, students discuss the forces of flight, how a plane flies and how a rocket gets off the ground. Students watch a video about rocket launches, discuss Newton's Third...
Cornell University
Physics of Flight
Up, up, and away! Take your classes on a physics adventure. Learners explore the concepts important for flight. They experiment with the Bernoulli Principle while learning the forces that act on airplanes in flight.
Curated OER
Pounds
In this mathematics worksheet, 1st graders identify which items pictured weighs more or less than a pound. Then they circle the objects that weigh more and place an X on the object that weigh less than a pound.
Curated OER
Flight Physics
Young scholars apply the knowledge of Bernoulli's Principle and construct simple aerodynamic designs. In this flight physics activity, students explore the history of man's interest in flying and the forces influencing an object in...
Curated OER
Understanding Bernoulli's Principle
Fifth graders explain why we fly. In this space science lesson, 5th graders discuss Bernoulli's prinicple and its relation to flight.
Curated OER
Newton's Third Law of Motion
Seventh graders are introduced to Newton's Third Law of Motion. In this physics lesson students examine the concept of thrust as one of the forces acting on aircraft.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Paper Airplanes
At this site students will use origami to fold a paper airplane that fly better than the classic dart airplane.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Up, Up and Away! Airplanes
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...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Why Winglets?
Make a paper airplane and experiment with adding winglets to it to test its performance. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and introduction, followed by a section on terms,...
Michigan Reach Out
Reach Out!: Making Paper Airplane Gliders
Students learn the fundamentals of aerodynamics in this hands-on exercise.
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: Lab Activity: Aviation
This site from the Illinois Institute of Technology provides a student lab activity in which the flight of a paper airplane is investigated and studied. Designed for primary grades, but easily adaptable for junior high students.