The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

Aircraft Designer

Aircraft Designer

A 5th grade STEM lesson

Author- Ajay Pacharne

Date- 01-10-2023

Notes for teachers

• Create groups purposefully.
• Make sure all materials are prepared beforehand.
• Provide equal opportunities to all the students in a group.
• Correlate this real life example from force and gravitation.

List of Materials

• Paper
• Paper clips
• Tape
• Rubber bands
• Tape measures
• Stapler
• Construction materials to make paper airplane launchers. You can use different materials depending on what you have available, for example:
• Corrugated cardboard and duct tape
• Wooden craft sticks and a hot glue gun
• Building toys like LEGO® or K'NEX®
• Wooden boards and nails or screws
• Open space to throw the airplanes. A hallway or large room like a gymnasium or cafeteria work well. This project works best indoors unless there is almost no wind outside.

Content Standards

Science Standard:

5.P3U1.4. - Obtain, analyze, and communicate evidence of the effects that balanced and unbalanced forces have on the motion of objects.

Core Idea:

P3: - Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.

​

• ​
• ​

Language Standards

5.W.1 - Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

a. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

b. Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.

c. Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., consequently, specifically).

d. Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.

Objectives:

Today as a design engineer we will,

- Use the engineering design process to design, build, and test a paper airplane and test how in the three different designs of airplanes, one can fly the fastest, one to fly the farthest, and one to fly the longest amount of time.

- Take notes of our observations and write a conclusion of our research.

​

Vocabulary

• Aerodynamic - of or having a shape which reduces the drag from air moving past
• Force - an influence tending to change the motion of a body or produce motion or stress in a stationary body
• Gravity - the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass
• Measurement - the size, length, or amount of something, as established by measuring

​

Agenda (50 minutes per day)

3 Days

Day 1- Introduction and learning designs and conducting research using the resources / independent research

Day 2- Design process, creating airplanes and data collection in the chart

Day 3- Conclusion and writing explanations

Intro

​

How to design an airplane?

(classroom discussion followed by watching the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDkP8oEjzzg

​

Hands-on Activity and Instructions

• Group of 5 students (based on their learning needs)
• Use the material provided to you.
• Each group will create three separate airplanes. One plane will need to fly the fastest. A second plane will need to fly the longest. A third plane will need to fly the farthest. Your models can be built out of any materials you have available (consider a combination of any of the materials provided to you.
• Begin by researching ideas related to forces and motion, shape, and symmetry, and then create sketches of your planes. (Day 1)
• Share your ideas with your peers in the group and make designs of all the 3 kinds of airplanes you want to make. (Day 1)
• Build each plane out of available materials and test them. Once you have tested (thrown) each plane, measure the distance they traveled using the number of feet and fraction of a foot. (Day 2)
• Make a chart that shows the distance each flew and determine how much further each one flew than the other two. Which difference was the greatest? Which was the least? (Day 2)
• Write an explanatory answer in the given worksheet based on your observations. (Day 3)

Resources (links)

Article This resource gives information about how paper airplanes fly and scientific information.

Fold' N Fly- This resource provides examples of different paper airplanes and how they are made.

Assessment

• Make a chart that shows the distance each flew and determine how much further each one flew than the other two. Which difference was greatest? Which was least?

​

Reflection Worksheet

• Write an explanation of why the airplanes have differences in

- their speed,

- their traveling distance, and -

- their traveling time .

• Also explain why the three different structures of the airplanes help them to achieve their performance goal.

​

Differentiation

Make a chart that shows the distance each flew and determine how much further each one flew than the other two.

​

or

​

Make a video of your group testing your airplanes and explain which on is the fastest, which one travelled the longest distance, and which one is longest in air, and why?

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Line Plot

Once you have tested all of your models and recorded the flight lengths in feet and fraction of a foot, you will be creating a line plot of the distances. For this product, you will gather flight information from at least one other group, and include it with yours. What conclusions can you reach from the data? What is the median and mode of the data you displayed?