This is part of my 15 minute Focus series.

Supplies: scrap paper and paper clips, scissors, tape, paper templates. Optional: a wind tube, snow cone cups

Aerodynamics?

Try the Bobby Dropper experiment. (I learned it on Mystery Science, a truly excellent science education program.) Slide a bobby pin (or a paper clip) onto a flat piece of paper. Slide another bobby pin (or paper clip) onto another piece of paper then crumple that paper into a ball around the pin. Climb up high and the flat paper and the ball of paper. Do they fall at the same speed? Is there anything different about how they fall?

Then ask kids to think of other things that float on the wind (leaves, snowflakes, feathers, maple seeds, dandelion seeds, plastic bags, frisbees, glider planes). Think of their shapes. How can you change the shape of a piece of paper so it is better at floating on the wind? Cut or fold the paper, test it against the crumpled ball. Tweak and repeat as many times as desired.

Paper Helicopters

Bring out printed copies of this template.

paper-helicopterDownload

Cut along the solid lines, and fold along the solid lines to make a “helicopter” shape. This illustration is from NASA and you can find more instructions at that link. Climb to any high place, and drop the helicopter – it will twirl to the ground.

Wind Tube – extension

We have a wind tube, a clear plastic tube mounted on a fan. The kids place something on the fan and watch it blow up in the air and out the top of the tube. (Learn how to make a wind tube.) So we tested all our items over there. We also cut snow cone cups in a spiral shape, and flew them as well.

Song: (tune: Row Your Boat)
Fly, Fly. Fly Away. Fly Away from Me;
Fly Fly Fly away, then float back down to me.

Book: Rosie Revere, Engineer by Beaty. Or Izzy Gizmo by Jones.

Find more ideas on the Science of Flight.