Student Aerospace Engineers Design Airplanes With Motors
My students need 16 paper airplane battery operated motors, batteries, markers, & a book on how to make airplanes.
$555 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
How many of you have ever made a paper airplane? How many of you have tried with a friend to see whose airplane will go the farthest or the highest? Did you know that engineers make models of things like airplanes to test their ideas in a laboratory setting before they build the real thing?
I teach in a continuation high school.
We have been distinguished with the state's honor: Model Continuation High School. First of all, the teachers at our site work as a team to continue to challenge our students as well as prepare them for the workplace and for college. Our administration encourages us to provide project based learning. This is our second year teaching with a team teacher and having culminating projects each semester. Students have risen to the occasion. They problem solve, research, reflect, edit, and come to conclusions before completing the culminating project, product, or event. It has been a highly gratifying process. Secondly, our students come here for a variety of reasons including: behind in credits, problematic home life, teenage pregnancy, new parents, gang membership, struggles with drug addiction, and simply not fitting in at the traditional high school. We all strive to make all students feel like they are part of our high school family.
My Project
Student teams will design at least 2 different paper airplanes. These teams will modify their designs to improve flight. Students will become familiar with parts of a paper airplane and how they relate to parts on a real airplane. Many factors affect the flight of an airplane. What factors can you think of that affect it's flight? (Answer: There are things like rudders, a streamlined design, weight, ailerons [the flaps on the main wings], elevators on the rear ends of the back wings, etc. that can affect the length of the flight, steering, & distance of the flight.) Engineers consider all of these factors when designing airplanes for speed, distance and cargo. In these lessons, students will become aerospace engineers by testing & refining different models of paper airplanes.
Once we have mastered the skill of creating flyable paper planes/gliders, student teams will attach the motors and attempt to fly it at least 15 seconds. Students will modify their design to hold the added weight. My students need 16 paper airplane battery operated motors, batteries, markers, & a book on how to make airplanes.
Students will realize that science based careers are worthwhile & this project will broaden their scope of possibilities for the future.
Learning included and not limited to: 1. Design, weight and rudders are all things that can affect paper airplane flight. 2. Engineers consider the purpose (cargo, speed, distance) of the airplane before designing it. 3. Engineers make prototypes of ideas to test in a laboratory setting before they build the real thing. 4. Learning comes from trial & errors.
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