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...
Teach Engineering
Future Flights: Imagine Your Own Flying Machines!
What will flying look like in the future? The 21st lesson in a 22-part unit on aviation reviews the major aspects of the lesson. Pupils brainstorm ideas of a future flying machine.
Curated OER
Principles of Flight: Flying Paper Airplanes
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 separate...
Teach Engineering
Adapatations for Bird Flight - Inspiration for Aeronautical Engineering
It's a bird, it's a ... device made to mimic birds. The eighth installment of a nine-part module has pupils read various articles to learn about bird flight. They consider the implications for aeronautical engineering.
Curated OER
Flying the Friendly Skies
Learners discover the power of wind by flying a glider. In this weather lesson, students describe their thoughts on wind and practice using weather related vocabulary. Learners construct model gliders in class and attempt to fly them...
Curated OER
Controlling Flight: Rudders, Ailerons, and Elevators
Fifth graders create paper gliders and check for flight distance and time. In this flight lesson plan, 5th graders create a paper glider from the attached worksheet and adjust the rudder, aileron, and elevator. They see how these...
Curated OER
Principles Of Flight: Wings That Spin
Students discover how flight is possible. In this physics lesson, students investigate the properties of a blimp and gyro-copter, comparing rotating wings and fixed wings of aircraft. Students create their own model aircraft and...
Curated OER
Proportions in Flight
Sixth graders explore physics by utilizing their math skills. In this flight properties lesson plan, 6th graders examine the flying capabilities of planes and birds. Students utilize math to find how many wing-beats are needed to keep a...
Curated OER
Flying The Friendly Skies
Young scholars investigate the science of flight while creating their own gliders and test them with the lift supplied by wind in the outdoors. They create a chart to make observations of the flight patterns of different gliders taking...
Curated OER
Milestones of Flight
Students identify significant milestones in the history of flight. In this aviation history instructional activity, students study various resource materials and construct timelines of significant achievements.
Curated OER
Principles of Flight
Students explore the principles of flight. In 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.
Curated OER
Science: Flight Aerodynamics
Young scholars apply the principles of aerodynamics by constructing styrofoam airplanes. By using simple tools and materials, they improve their spatial visualization abilities while increasing motor skills. After small groups of...
Curated OER
Proportions in Flight
Sixth graders calculate wingspan and the body length of the birds and understand how they relate to how the bird flies. In this wingspan lesson plan, 6th graders also calculate their own "wing span" with their arms.
Curated OER
If Peter Pan Can Fly, Why Can't I?
Students redesign a human, using data in research, so that s/he can fly. For this flying lesson, students examine the characteristics and adaptations of groups of animals that can fly. Using this research, students work cooperatively to...
Curated OER
An Uplifting Experience
Fifth graders conduct flight experiments. In this uplifting experience lesson, 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 of attack. Students...
Curated OER
Classify Machines that Fly!
Eighth graders explore flight and the dichotomous key. In this flight lesson, 8th graders gain understanding of the dichotomous key and create one of their own. Students then use their dichotomous key to classify types of aircraft.
Curated OER
Fantastic Flying Journey
Third graders listen to a teacher reading of the "Fantastic Flying Journey." students research each country/continent using the Internet and creating a travel journal.
NASA
Rocket Wind Tunnel
Using a teacher-built wind tunnel constructed from a paper concrete tube form, a fan, and a balance, individuals determine the amount of drag their rocket design will experience in flight. Pupils make modifications to increase the...
Curated OER
Flying Freudian Fun: A Look At Ethical Decision Making
There are not many more apt examples of ethics gone awry than William Golding's Lord of the Flies.. Ninth graders focus the ethics of decision making with the examples provided in the plot. They focus on the concept of the psyche and how...
Curated OER
Kites
Students build a kite while integrating math and science. In this kite building lesson, students construct a blueprint and apply mathematical formulas while constructing a kite. They use appropriate flight and kite terminology to...
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
What’s That, I Can’t Hear You?
Students investigate forms of energy as well as light and sound. In this science lesson, students participate in hands-on activities that require them to evaluate how sound affects astronauts in flight. A video of this lesson being...
Curated OER
Maximum Flight Time
Students, after reading an explanation from a NASA Web site, demonstrate an understanding of the text by applying it to questions involving Maximum Flight Time and Range under varying conditions.
Curated OER
Altitude and Flight Forces
Learners use the World Wide Web to access and use FoilSim. They also use the World Wide Web to access the NASA Glenn Web site for information relative to the factors involved with the flight of an airplane.