Lesson Plan
Children's Museum

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis: Curious Scientific Investigators: Flight Adventures

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students will make paper rockets, parachutes, and foam gliders to experience how objects move through the air. Explore topics such as thrust, weight, gravity, force, and lift through fun activities and stories and cutting-edge work done...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Flying With Style

For Teachers 10th - 12th
As students begin to understand the physics behind thrust, drag, and gravity and how these relate these to Newton's three laws of motion, groups assemble and launch the rockets that they designed in the associated lesson.
Interactive
South Carolina Educational Television

Know It All: Lift | Nasa Online

For Students 9th - 10th
An upward force called lift acts on the airplane and opposes the downward forces of gravity. The lift force allows the airplane to get off the ground and stay in the air. Watch the simulation to see how this works.
Activity
NASA

Nasa: Weight and Balance Forces Acting on an Airplane

For Students 9th - 10th
The effects of forces exerted on an airplane wing are discussed both conceptually and mathematically. Illustrations and sample problems and solutions are provided.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Makes Airplanes Fly?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students begin to explore the idea of a force. To further their understanding of drag, gravity and weight, they conduct activities that model the behavior of parachutes and helicopters. An associated literacy activity engages the class...
Website
NASA

Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics

For Students 9th - 10th
Includes exhaustive information and a wealth of activities pertaining to aerodynamics and the physics of flight.
Activity
University of Minnesota

The Physics of Flight: Bernoulli's Principle

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses air flow around the wing of a plane and its effect upon the lift and drag forces. Focuses on the application of Bernoulli's principle to wing design and the subsequent airfoil shapes.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Measuring G

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Using the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit, students construct experiments to measure the time it takes a free falling body to travel a specified distance. Students use the touch sensor, rotational sensor, and the NXT brick to measure the time of...
Website
Other

Personal: The Laws of Motion

For Students 9th - 10th
This personal site explains the physics of angular momentum and their application to flight. Part of a much larger site on the procedures, principles, and perceptions of flight.
Lesson Plan
Discovery Education

Discovery Education: Physical Science

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The Discovery Channel provides numerous lesson plans dealing with the physical sciences. Content is organized by grade level, but all lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences.