Curated OER
The Physics of Flight
Three activities allow young flight engineers to understand the 4 principles of flight (weight, lift, thrust, and drag), to construct a glider, and to create a propeller. Multicultural history and literature are integrated by reading...
Curated OER
Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
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
The Physics of Flight
Students discuss how the invention of flight changed the way people live today. In groups, they compare and contrast the differences between weight, lift, thrust and drag. Using these principles, they create a glider and propeller with...
Curated OER
Flight Dreams - Flight Factors
Students investigate the physics of flight by experimenting in class. In this history of flight activity, students define terms such as gravity, lift, and drag in order to better understand how a plane is able to stay in the air....
Curated OER
Principles of Flight: Flying Paper Airplanes
Students investigate ways to enhance an object's flying ability. In this model construction instructional activity, students construct two paper airplanes, one of which is twice as big as the first. Students compare and...
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Physics of a Slingstone: Slingstones in flight
Students gain a better understanding of the technology used by ancient Chamorros. In this physics lesson students theorize ways to forcefully throw a fist-sized object and discuss the technology behind a slingstone.
Curated OER
Principles of Flight: Bernoulli's Lift
Learners discover how air pressure effects flight. For this physics lesson, students create two types of airplane wings so they can observe the way air pressure creates lift. Learners utilize a printout to create the airplane...
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How Things Fly
Students will examine the physics of flight through using experimental inquiry. In this lesson, you'll introduce your students to the four forces of flight--drag, lift, thrust, and weight--through a variety of fun-filled flight...
Curated OER
Crash Course in Flight
High school physicists demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle by blowing on different items and finding that they do not move in the expected direction! They apply Bernoulli's equation to the flight of an airplane. This well-organized lesson...
Curated OER
Lift and Drag: Principles of Flight and the Soaring Imagination
Students construct models of early gas balloons and gliders. In this balloon and glider lesson, students create models of early gas balloons and gliders, discover how the forces of lift and drag effect aircraft in flight, and put on...
Curated OER
Origami Flight: The Physical Setting
Sixth graders investigate the forces that move certain objects. In this physics lesson, 6th graders design and create paper flying objects using origami methods, which they practice flying in different conditions. Students...
Curated OER
The Flying Paperclip
Students investigate items that interrupt magnetic fields. In this physics lesson, students explain why the paper clip in the experiment seems to fly. They write a detailed explanation of what they did in this activity.
Curated OER
Aviation, Aeronautics and Aerodynamics
Young scholars investigate the physics of flight through various experiments. In this physics lesson plan, students construct different flying objects. They explain the dynamics that make these object fly.
Curated OER
Light Sport Aircraft Design Challenge
Young scholars investigate aircraft design to learn many concepts of physics. In this aircraft design lesson plan, students use balsa wood and styrofoam to build an aircraft based on their study of wing designs, aviation, and through the...
Curated OER
Strawkets and Weight
Students investigate the effect that weight has on rocket flight. They construct a variety of straw-launched rockets that have different weights, observe what happens when the weight of a rocket is altered by reducing its physical size...
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Amazing Birds
What's so amazing about birds? Find out just how amazing birds are with a physics of animal behavior unit created by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Have learners explore and tap into their observational skills and notice how birds fly, what...
Curated OER
Flight Physics
Learners apply the knowledge of Bernoulli's Principle and construct simple aerodynamic designs. In this flight physics lesson, students explore the history of man's interest in flying and the forces influencing an object in flight by...
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Balsa Wood Airplane Flight and Speed Correlation
Ninth graders calculate the average speed of their balsa wood airplane. In this physics lesson, 9th graders build their own airplane and make necessary modifications to to make it fly straight. They interpret distance and time graph...
Curated OER
Principles of Flight
Learners explore the principles of flight. In this flight activity, students construct a model plane and investigate the forces acting on the flier. They will measure the thrust and calculate the stored energy.
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Biological Flight
Learners examine the many different ways that seeds fly in birds, in air, and why. In this science lesson plan, students collect seeds, learn Bernoulli's principle including lift, ailerons, elevators, drag and how to make a paper...
Curated OER
The Physics of Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air
Students study hummingbirds and how they use Newton's law. In this motion lesson students complete several activities and view videos of hummingbirds.
Curated OER
Boomerangs Keep Coming Back
Students investigate the flight of paper boomerangs. In this flight lesson, students examine the flight variables of paper boomerangs, which they make, by investigating the concepts of lift and drag. They examine what happens when an...
Curated OER
An Uplifting Experience
Fifth graders conduct flight experiments. In this uplifting experience instructional activity, 5th graders build an airfoil and place in a variety of conditions to observe the results of lift and force in flight, as well as angle...