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...

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...

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.

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...

Students investigate ways to enhance an object's flying ability.  In this model construction lesson, students construct two paper airplanes, one of which is twice as big as the first.  Students compare and contrast the two...

Students investigate the physics of flight by experimenting in class.  In this history of flight lesson, students define terms such as gravity, lift, and drag in order to better understand how a plane is able to stay in the air....

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.

Young scholars will examine the physics of flight through using experimental inquiry. In this instructional activity, you'll introduce your students to the four forces of flight--drag, lift, thrust, and weight--through a variety of...

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...

Students study hummingbirds and how they use Newton's law.  In this motion instructional activity students complete several activities and view videos of hummingbirds. 

Students discover how air pressure effects flight.  In this physics lesson, students create two types of airplane wings so they can observe the way air pressure creates lift.  Students utilize a printout to create the airplane...

Students explore the principles of flight. For this flight lesson, students construct a model plane and investigate the forces acting on the flier. They will measure the thrust and calculate the stored energy.

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...

Ninth graders utilize Newton's Laws of Motion to explain how things move, create poster illustrating each law of motion, and present and explain their poster to classmates.

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...

Students investigate the physics of flight through various experiments. In this physics lesson, students construct different flying objects. They explain the dynamics that make these object fly.

Young scholars explore the concept of the scientific method. In this investigative lesson, students investigate which direction the blades will spin on a gyrocopter. Student will practice using the scientific method to complete the...

Students are introduced to the physics of flight through video and PowerPoint presentations. They construct and fly model gliders and compete for height, distance, time, etc.

Students investigate aircraft design to learn many concepts of physics. In this aircraft design lesson, students use balsa wood and styrofoam to build an aircraft based on their study of wing designs, aviation, and through the use of an...

Learners 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...

Learners investigate how rocket liftoff demonstrates Newton's Laws of Motion. They participate in a class discussion, and construct a rocket powered by the pressure generated from an antacid tablet reacting with water.

Twelfth graders examine the physics of rocket flight. They build and launch model rockets to measure their performances.

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...

Learners investigate the factors affecting projectile trajectory. In this physics lesson, students calculate the range, time and speed of projectiles using mathematical equations.