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Notes for teachers

Context: This lesson will take multiple hours, and is best reserved for a smaller number of students unless the teacher has help for cutting wings. Cutting Ready-Board properly will require a craft knife (scissors do too much damage to the thick, stiff foam). This should be performed by the teacher, after students have created and traced their designs onto the Ready-Board.
This lesson requires the purchase of an RC airplane. See materials list for more information. This should be around $200. After purchasing all supplies for an entire classroom cost will land around $300, but most of these can be used for multiple years, so repeats of the lesson will be much cheaper!
Students may work in small groups of 2-4.
Time should be allotted for multiple flights, so students can trial and improve their designs.
Since the wings are flat, there is not a lot of “lift” involved, but it should be included in their study of flight.

List of Materials

RC airplane kit. I recommend the J-Wings STEM Hawk bundled with the power kit. (other planes could be adapted to this lesson) https://j-wings.co/products/stem-hawk
Transmitter/Receiver, battery, and charger (whichever are recommended for your specific plane) See link above for example and information.
One sheet of 20” x 30” Readi-Board (as found at Dollar Tree stores) for every two groups. Also buy a few extras for student errors. https://www.dollartree.com/readi-board-white-foam-boards/809955
Tape, Hot glue, scissors, craft knife, rubberbands, string, duct tape.

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What This Lesson Entails, and Who it is For…

This lesson includes having students design and build a wing to put onto a pre-built RC plane and fly it in circles (tethered).
The teacher will be the one who pre-builds the rc plane itself and hands the controls to each student after lift off.
Only teachers with at least a modest amount of RC knowledge will want to attempt this lesson!

Why Tethered?

It is exceptionally difficult for a teacher to fly an RC plane with their students. Fastening one side of the wing to a string and flying in circles gets rid of SO MANY of the difficulties of flying RC planes, but still allows the students to experience RC airplane flight (albeit in a limited form).

Basically, it is WAY easier, but it is still super fun!

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Grade 5 Science Standards

5.P2U1.3

Construct an explanation using evidence to demonstrate that objects can affect other objects even when they are not touching.

5.P3U1.4

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

5.P3U2.5

Define problems and design solutions pertaining to force and motion.

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Objective(s):

Today we will explain how motion is the result of unbalanced forces.

Today we will learn about the four main forces involved in flight.

Today we will use that knowledge to design, engineer, then improve an a wing for an RC airplane.

Today we will collaborate and communicate effectively with our peers to complete an engineering design challenge.

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Agenda (lesson time)

This project may take up to 4 lesson periods of up to one hour each.

1st- Review of balanced and unbalanced forces as well as principles of flight.

2nd- Engineer wing

3rd- Initial flight, analyze results, and make improvements

4th- Second flight, then analyze data

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How do airplanes fly?

First, visit the following websites for some excellent information about the science of flight:

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/four_forces_k-4.pdf

https://howthingsfly.si.edu/

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Some Helpful Hints!

Important!

Center of Gravity- Weight Distribution

The center of gravity is very important on any airplane. You could cover dozens of lessons on this one subject. Let’s keep it simple, though. You’ll want the plane to be able to balance (front to rear) about ¼ of the way back from the leading(front) edge of the wing. If these gliders have the weight too far forward, they will nose dive, too far back and they will stall.

Angle of attack is also very important, especially for a flat wing. If you can not achieve lift with a wing, and center of gravity is not the issue, you may need to tilt the wing to achieve a steeper angle of attack.

The teacher needs to follow the build instructions from J-Wings’ or the STEM +C website, and test fly before having students build their own wing to fly on the tethered plane.

BUILD INSTRUCTIONS (For the teacher)

https://stemplusc.org/the-benett/

https://j-wings.co/pages/how-to-build-stem-hawk-rc

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Important!

Helpful hint on Center of Gravity- Weight Distribution

The center of gravity is very important on any airplane. You could cover dozens of lessons on this one subject. Let’s keep it simple, though. You’ll want the plane to be able to balance (front to rear) about ¼ of the way back from the leading(front) edge of the wing. If they have the weight too far forward, they will nose dive, too far back and they will backflip or stall.

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Time to Engineer a Wing!

Each group gets a half sheet of Readi-Board.
Work together to design a wing on regular paper.
Once approved, groups draw their cuts in pencil on the Readi-Board for the teacher to cut out with a hobby knife.
Once they are assembled, wings need to be attached to a string(tethered) and the teacher will guide the flight process. To avoid injury make sure the wing can not detach from the string.
Note to teacher- Set up the controller in a user friendly fashion so that students can control speed and elevator. Then, guide the flight process!
Adjustments in weight distribution (COG) and angle of attack may need to be made for optimal flight. Allowing student input on this can be one way to assess students.

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Assessment

Consider assessing the following:

-Did the student apply an understanding of the the principles taught?

-Were students able to make valid suggestions for flight improvement?

-Write a paragraph explaining how flight applies to principles of balanced and unbalanced forces.

-Write a paragraph explaining how the airplanes are affected by Isaac Newton’s 3 laws of motion.

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Differentiation

Students may need help creating the wing according to their design. You may also consider using a “buddy box” when flying to avoid too many crashes.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Since the wings are flat, there is not a lot of traditional “lift” involved, so keep that in mind. Advanced students could, however, experiment with different wing foils to try to achieve more lift.