Teach Engineering
Airplane Tails and Wings: Are You in Control?
Keep everything under control. The instructional activity, the 16th segment in a 22-part unit, provides a more detailed look at the parts of a plane, specifically the control surfaces. Pupils learn about the construction of the wings and...
Teach Engineering
Better By Design
Which modification is the best? Using the scientific method, pairs determine the effects of each control surface on the distance of a glider's flight. The activity, section 16 in a 22-part unit on aviation, allows pupils to gain a better...
Curated OER
The Aspect Ratio of Wings
Junior engineers examine aspect ration in airplane wings. Using the length and width of two differetn wings, they calculate the aspect ratios and compare drag rankings. An engineering or space science class would benefit from this...
Teach Engineering
Will It Fly?
Go fly a kite, then fly a plane! The 19th part of a 22-part unit on aviation looks at the way kites and gliders help aid in the understanding of flight. Pupils discuss how engineers used kites to influence airplane designs.
TerraCycle
What Can Nature Teach Us about Sustainable Design?
Talk about Velcro®, Gecko Tape, WhalePower turbine blades, and other innovations that mimic nature to inspire your STEM or engineering class. This set of worksheets gets them thinking about imitating nature in terms of sustainable...
Teach Engineering
Building-Testing-Improving Paper Airplanes: Head's Up!
Take foldables to all new heights. Pupils build and fly different types of paper airplanes in the 14th portion of a 22-part unit on aviation. Groups collect data on distance and flight time for each plane and compare the data from the...
Curated OER
The Kite
Historical facts and some diagrams about the structure of a kite are given in this PowerPoint. Interesting facts lead to the goal of individuals or groups designing and building their own kite. With this in mind, it might be useful to...
Curated OER
Flying Wing
Fifth graders create a flying wing from a pastry tray. For this flying wing lesson, 5th graders understand how the shape of the wind affects flight. Students compare the flying wing to the zanonia seed in nature. Students make changes in...
Curated OER
Testing and Refining Aircraft Design
Students design and make a flying device. They work in small groups to brainstorm ideas for the design of their device. They choose an idea or combination of ideas to use for their design and create a sketch of their design. The students...
Curated OER
Light Sport Aircraft Design Challenge
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...
Teach Engineering
Balsa Glider Competition
Change one variable and try again. Teams build basic balsa gliders and collect data on their flight distances and times. Through collaboration, the team decides on two modifications to make to the basic design and collect data for the...
Curated OER
Helicopter Design Company
Learners test different designs of helicopters to determine what of the four designs will fall the slowest. In this helicopter lesson students complete an activity and fill out their worksheet.
Curated OER
Airplane Wings
Students examine the aerodynamics of a wing and how it generates lift. In this flight activity students complete several experiments including how to build a paper plane and how airfoils affect performance.
Teach Engineering
May the Force Be With You: Lift
Get the class up and going with a activity that discusses how airplane wings provide lift. Pupils use their knowledge of Bernoulli's Principle to develop an explanation of how it creates lift on airplane wings.
Curated OER
Wing Area
Students demonstrate an understanding of the text by applying it to the calculations involving the area of a wing. They use an online textbook to help them calculate the area of the surface of wing planforms.
Teach Engineering
Windy Tunnel
Lift—it is about the wing's attack. Using a virtual wind tunnel, pupils investigate wing shape and angle of attack. Learners use worksheets to record their observations and to convert verbal relationships into mathematical equations in...
DiscoverE
Build a Better Boomerang
This isn't the boomerang you're used to. Scholars first see how a commercial boomerang works. They then cut out a four-wing boomerang and test its flight to compare it to that of the commercial boomerang.
Curated OER
Whose Parts Do I Have? (Wings and Things)
Learners identify an animal and a body part and then matches a body part to a specific animal. This will assess their ability to sort organisms and objects into groups according to their parts and describe how the groups are formed and...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Wind Tunnel Testing
One of the factors that automotive engineers must consider is wind drag. The less wind drag, the more efficient the car will be. They perform many tests in wind tunnels, then refine their designs and test again. Using simple materials,...
University of Washington
Using Modeling to Demonstrate Self-Assembly in Nanotechnology
Do polar opposites attract? After an introduction on the polarity of molecules, pupils are asked to design a self-assembling model using materials with different polarity. The challenge should motivate learners to develop a workable...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Animal Habitats: English Language Development Lessons (Theme 4)
This activities in this packet, the second in the series of support materials for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on animal habitats, are designed specifically for English language learners.
Curated OER
Side by Side: Butterfly Wings and Symmetry
Young scholars observe butterfly images and then draw and paint their own design. They use this activity to explain symmetry.
Curated OER
Design of Airfoil for Given Lift
Pupils use FoilSim to design an airplane wing that generates a given lift. As they change parameters such as airspeed, altitude, angle of attack, thickness and curvature of the airfoil, and size of the wing area, the software calculates...
Curated OER
Mimicking Nature; Science, Aviation, Flight, Wings
Learners consider the relationship between form and flight and investigate the history of man made flight and how wing shape and flexibility affects the maneuverability of an aircraft.