Soaring Skies: Designing and Improving Paper Airplanes

Soaring Skies: Designing and Improving Paper Airplanes

Learning Objective

Understand the principles of aerodynamics and apply them to design paper airplanes that achieve maximum flight distance.

What do you already know about designing paper airplanes for maximum flight distance?

Introduction to Aerodynamics

Exploring the basic principles of aerodynamics and how they apply to paper airplane design.

Designing the Initial Paper Airplane

Step-by-step guide to designing a basic paper airplane using principles of aerodynamics.

Test Flights and Data Collection

Conduct test flights to gather data on the flight distance of the initial paper airplanes.

Analyzing Flight Data

Using collected data to identify areas for potential improvement in the paper airplane designs.

Iterative Design Process

Introducing the concept of iterative design and how it can be applied to improve paper airplane designs.

Implementing Design Improvements

Guidance on making modifications to the initial paper airplane designs to enhance flight distance.

Final Flight Distance Competition

Conduct a competition to test the final improved paper airplane designs and determine the longest flight distance achieved.

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

Here, students enter two things they would like to know more about. This not only increases involvement, but also gives them more ownership.

Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.

The students indicate here (in question form) with which part of the material they still have difficulty. For the teacher, this not only provides insight into the extent to which the students understand/master the material, but also a good starting point for the next lesson.