My students need a Rocket Water Class set, plastic propellers with steel shafts, Kids Paper airplane book and Balsa wood glider kits for an inquiry based learning project on Flight.
I teach Gifted and Talented enrichment classes for four different schools, in the Grades Kindergarten through Fifth.
Some of my students are non-English speakers, but their love for learning is apparent.
My classes consist of diverse learners from various socioeconomic statuses. Some of my students are from low-performing schools and are very excited about their enrichment class, where we can do hands-on activities in addition to the monotone intervention and repetition that usually takes place. This is usually the only time where they are asked to be creative and develop their talents.
My students do not always come from homes where they are told that their futures are bright and they can become anything they choose. It is my mission to educate them about all the possibilities that await them and to nurture their talents.
My Project
My students and I will use the book: Flight :the science behind to launch our STEM Project. My students will learn how the first successful venture into human flight came about because of two French brothers. My students will use the Ultimate Guide to Paper airplanes book to create paper airplanes of their choosing. The students will then observe the motion of the paper airplane and study its construction before applying Newton’s 3rd Law twice to explain how it moves. The students will also compare and contrast the flight of their paper airplane and the balsa glider they construct using the Balsa Glider Top Gun model planes.
STEM education helps to bridge the ethnic and gender gaps sometimes found in math and science fields.
Furthermore, STEM education breaks the traditional gender roles. This is why it is so important to offer STEM opportunities in our classrooms. I want to bridge the gap and flip the traditional gender roles. My students will work in pairs or groups of their choosing while learning about flight. They will uncover science concepts such as the laws of motion, lift, drag and aerodynamics through hands on explorations. Some of the learning outcomes from using the Water Rocket Kits are:
-rockets will launch and keep speeding up as long as the force pushing it upwards is greater than the forces pulling and pushing it downwards
-a rocket produces thrust to start it moving by pushing against the gases inside the rocket
-the mass of a rocket is important for two reasons – an object with less mass accelerates more quickly, and an object with more mass has less gravitational force acting on it
The students will also document their learning through the use of science logs, graphs, charts and videos.
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