Taking Flight with Paper Airplanes

In this lesson students learn about the motion and design of paper airplanes. They learn about the following science topics: force, aerodynamics, drag, thrust, gravity, and lift. As an introduction to flight students learn about the Wright Brothers and discuss how airplanes have changed over time and the impact the invention of the airplane had on society as a whole. Then students begin to explore with paper airplanes, leading to many questions about how to build them to get the longest flight possible. From these questions students will develop an investigation to test predictions and make observations and conclusions. Students work in partners to carry out the investigation and it is assessed with a rubric. This is an amazing inquiry based lessons. I use this unit to teach students about designing investigations to test for one variable. Students are very engaged through the whole process and love the challenge of designing and testing their own science investigation. I use this lesson during my invention unit with 4th and 5th grade gifted and talented students. PowerPoint has been converted to a PDF and can't be edited.