take to the skies
TRANSCRIPT
TAKE TO THE SKIES Exploring the Air Around Us
An Elementary-Grades Afterschool STEM Curriculum
From the USS Hornet Museum Education Department
Sam Nolting, Fall 2016
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department i
About This Document
This packet contains the outline, syllabus, curriculum, assessments, and
instructional materials for Take to the Skies, an afterschool program on aviation,
fluid dynamics, and the properties of air, developed by the USS Hornet Museum’s
Education Department for use with 1st through 5th graders in Alameda.
The program is designed to cover six one-hour sessions, but the material in this
packet will easily stretch to more, or can be condensed to fewer, sessions of
different durations.
We intend this material to be accessible to informal educators of all experience
levels, and we hope that you find it useful in your own teaching. If you use these
pieces, we welcome your feedback.
Sam Nolting
STEM Program Coordinator
USS Hornet Museum Education Department
PO Box 460, Alameda CA 94501
uss-hornet.org
facebook.com/USSHornetMuseumEDU
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department ii
Table of Contents
About This Document .........................................................................................................i
Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................ii
Goals ..........................................................................................................................................1
Big Questions ..........................................................................................................................1
Big Ideas ...................................................................................................................................1
Objectives.................................................................................................................................2
Anatomy of a Day .................................................................................................................3
Calendar ....................................................................................................................................5
Lesson Plans ............................................................................................................................7
Standards .................................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................15
Appendix: Class Materials ..................................................................................................16
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 1
Goals
Students interact with moving and still air in a variety of ways, exploring its fluid
properties at room temperature. Students explore flow, pressure, the weight of a
gas, action and reaction, and Bernoulli effects using simple materials and
activities. Students use engineering methods to respond to challenges, and often
take home their creations. Students reflect on their design solutions, and on the
properties of air, in closing conversations.
Big Questions
What does it mean to fly?
What is air? How do we know air is there? (Day 1)
Why does air hold some things up? (Days 2-3)
How is air like water?
How can we move air? How does air move? (Days 4-5)
Why are wings shaped like that?
How can we use air to fly? (Day 6)
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
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Big Ideas
Air is Stuff. Air may be invisible, but it is made of matter -- 'stuff' that takes up
space. It’s not infinitely compressible, and it’s hard to remove all the air from
something.
Air Has Weight. A big stack of air, like the atmosphere, is pulled down by gravity,
and pushes on everything it touches. We feel this push as pressure. Air is
surprisingly heavy!
Air is Fluid. Air moves like water, pushes in all directions on everything it
touches, and sticks to itself and other things. Areas of moving air can form
vortices, flow in currents, or break up in turbulence.
When You Push Air, It Pushes You. Every action – like pushing on the air – has a
reaction: the air pushes back. Mechanical energy transfers to, from, and through
air in characteristic ways.
Fast-Moving Air Pushes Less. When air gets moving, it spreads out, and uses its
energy to move faster rather than to push out on things around it. This Bernoulli
effect creates strange phenomena: as air flows faster, it exerts less pressure within
its flow.
We Can Use Air to Fly! Whether you think of it as action-reaction, or the
Bernoulli effect, a moving object can use the air to lift itself. The shape of a wing,
or airfoil, changes how well this works. When the angle of attack or angle of
incidence changes, the wing interacts with the air in different ways: it can create
negative, positive, or zero lift, or cause a stall as turbulent flow increases behind
the wing.
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
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Objectives
a. Ss can depict and describe air as a substance, occupying space, having mass,
and exerting force. Ss can use evidence from observations to support their
claims.
b. Ss can depict or describe air’s motion as a fluid: flowing like water, displaying
adhesion and cohesion. They can describe and suggest explanations for air’s
movements, incorporating ideas of weight, pressure, temperature, viscosity,
inertia, and adhesion. [Note: specific vocabulary terms are not part of the
assessment.]
c. Ss can manipulate air with tools, and alter their tools to affect the behavior of
the air. Ss can depict or describe the interaction of the tool and the air.
d. Ss can ask questions about Bernoulli effect phenomena, create and evaluate
possible explanations, and design imaginary devices that might use the effect.
e. Ss can build flying objects, observe their flight, and alter them to fly
differently. Ss can model, via depiction or description, how their flying object
interacts with the air.
f. Ss can compare different flying objects, and create explanations of how their
structures cause the differences in their behavior.
g. Ss can perform multiple tests on flying objects to assess the effect of
individual changes to a design, and compare their results to find design
strengths and weaknesses.
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Anatomy of a Day
(Note: Tuesday program will begin at 3:10 and end at 4:10 PM.)
2:50 PM School lets out.
Instructor (T) must set up for the session: move furniture, put aside
or work around materials left behind, set up materials for session,
test any technology to be used, prepare boards with Big Questions
and Big Ideas.
POSSIBLY T will also collect the day-care students from wherever
they are gathered, then walk them back to class.
3:00 After-school class session begins.
Start of class. T welcomes students at the door, ask them to sit
down at a preselected table or desks.
Take attendance.
3:05 “Spark” demo or simple activity. AKA “the hook.” Something to get
people talking, thinking, and invested in the agenda. Follow up
with discussion, such as a pair share (talk to your partner for 30
seconds about ____; ask your partner ____) and/or group
brainstorm (Ss call out, T writes on board)
3:15 Activities – the meat of the day. A half hour isn’t much time, so
things have to move quickly. Setting things up in advance is key;
transitions need to be quick. If Ss are having a great time on
something, and T can’t get to everything planned…no big deal.
Learning is happening.
3:45 Cleanup.
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3:50 Reflection/closing. Ss respond (in writing, verbally, or by drawing)
to a prompt. Prompt should be written on board and spoken
aloud by T, and Ss should respond on sticky notes, to be stuck to a
poster as a visible record of the day’s learning.
3:55 Ss look at others’ responses and help to decorate the poster with
project examples etc.
4:00 Parents sign Ss out and goodbye!
POSSIBLY T will need to see all other students out, then walk the
day care students back to their gathering place.
After class Final clean up, pack up materials.
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
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Calendar
September – December 2016
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Sep
tem
ber
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20
Nea
21 22 23 24
25 26 27
Nea
28 29
Lum
30 1
Octo
ber
2 3 4
Nea
5 6
Lum
7 8
9 10 11
Nea
12 13
Lum
14 15
16 17
Otis
18
Nea
19 20
Lum
21 22
23 24
Otis
25
Nea
26 27
Lum
28 29
30 31 1 2 3
Lum
4 5
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 7
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
No
vem
ber
6 7
Otis
8 9 10 11 12
13 14
Otis
15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 1 2 3
Decem
ber
4 5
Otis
6 7 8 9 10
11 12
Otis
13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Site and Program Information
Mondays: Otis Elementary School, grades 1-3, room 221, 3:00-4:00 PM.
Tuesdays: Nea Elementary School, grades 1-5, room 33, 3:10-4:10 PM. 1900
Third Street.
Thursdays: Lum Elementary School, grades 2-5, pod 3, 3:00-4:00 PM.
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Lesson Outlines
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Take to the Skies, Day 1
Air is Stuff
Class
Big Idea
Big Questions
What is air? How do we know air is there?
Conceptual Takeaways
Air may be invisible, but it is made of matter – 'stuff' that takes up
space.
(5th graders: Air is made of tiny particles, and their interaction
makes air behave the way it does.)
(Instructor: Air has volume, and can be compressed into a smaller
volume, or expand to fill a larger volume.)
Session Objectives
Ss can depict and describe air as a substance, occupying space,
having mass, and exerting force. Ss can use evidence from
observations to support their claims.
Assessment
Ss choose a phenomenon that represents “Air Is Stuff” to them,
then justify their choice with observations as evidence.
Ss discuss why they can’t blow the paper wad into the bottle,
forming and comparing explanations.
Ss build and modify a balloon-powered water fountain.
Ss draw a picture from today, including drawing the air.
Materials
Balloons, markers/pencils, easel pad, Sharpies, craft sticks,
paperclips, ribbon, tape, paper, water, trays and plastic sheeting
(if needed), fan or other air mover, plastic bottles (1/student),
tealight candle + base, paperclip hole poker, hot glue guns +
glue rods, straws (bendy), scissors, buckets
Timing Instructor Does Students Do
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Well in
advance
10m before
class begins
2m before
class begins
0:00-0:05
0:05-0:15
Prepare the materials, print printouts,
organize everything for quick
deployment. Poke hot-paperclip holes
about 1/3 of the way up each of the
bottles, and enlarge using an unloaded
hot-glue gun until a small straw fits
inside.
Arrive, unpack, set up. Choose a space,
on a table or the floor, to spread the
tarp for water activities. Choose where
Ss will sit when they arrive. Start the fan
with ribbons attached at the place
where students will gather. Prep the
station rotation challenges. Lay out craft
materials on a side table.
Welcome students, ask them to sit
down and wait to touch the materials.
Wait for attention, then introduce
yourself. Briefly say, “Welcome to Take
to the Skies. I have a question for you:
What do you know about air?” Listen to
the answers, repeat them back or
restate them. Nothing is correct or
incorrect now; we want to know who
the students are, how they feel socially
with each other and with you, and
where their understanding of the
content is. Chat!
Take attendance.
Ask students to choose a balloon, blow
it up, write their name on it, and
decorate it however they like. Offer the
air mattress pump to Ss if they have
trouble inflating their balloons.
Blow up your own balloon and show
how to wrap + pinch it shut with a craft
Ss begin to enter, and
sit down.
Ss offer opinions on
the air.
Ss give their names.
Ss choose a balloon
and write/draw their
names. Then they blow
up their balloons, and
clothespin them
closed.
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0:15-0:25
{3 min}
0:25-0:35
0:35-0:45
stick and paper clip.
Ask: “What’s in your balloon? What’s in
this room? What’s in your lungs? How
do you know that the air is there?”
Show Ss the stations, and ask them to
join a partner to examine them. Ask:
“Where is the air? What is the air doing?
What do you see happening? Why do
you think it’s happening?”
Time and announce transitions. (1.5
minutes: Go to the other station if you
haven’t seen it yet!. 30 seconds: 30
seconds remaining!)
a. Try to inflate a balloon in a
bottle
b. Try to blow a paper wad into a
bottle
Ask Ss to pair share for 30 seconds
each: Say 3 observations you made that
let you know the air is there.
Ask for volunteers to explain their
answers to the group.
Show Ss an incomplete water bottle
fountain: a plastic bottle, uncapped,
with a straw inserted and hot-glued
into a hole in its side, partially full of
water. Why doesn’t it run out of the
straw?
Inflate your balloon and put it over the
bottle mouth. What will happen?
Demonstrate the fountain, show the
instructions, then show Ss the materials
to build their own. Ask a S to describe
how to make it.
Ss tour stations with a
partner and describe 3
ways they know that
the air is there.
Ss talk to their partner
about their
observations.
One or two volunteers
explain aloud.
Ss watch, answer.
Ss hypothesize.
Ss observe, listen, reply
– but don’t go for
materials yet.
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0:45-0:50
0:50-1:00
1:00
Go over hot glue safety: Don’t touch
the glue for 1 minute after you glue
something. Don’t touch the front of the
glue gun EVER. Always unplug the gun
when you’re done. (For today, T is in
control of hot gluing and paperclip
hole-poking, but it may open up in
future.)
Tell students to begin building (but to
keep the water in their trays, and the
trays on the tarp). Water might be
outside; while building happens inside.
T circulates, asking questions about
devices.
Bring Ss together for cleanup. Tell them
to pour out their projects and put them
in one place. Then orchestrate cleanup.
Ask Ss to sit down together. Hand out
sticky notes and markers. Ask Ss to
draw a picture of the air.
Ask willing Ss to share their diagrams
aloud.
Dismiss Ss if room is clean and time is
up.
Ss listen and respond.
Ss build, test, discuss,
and alter their
fountains.
Ss clean up.
Ss sit, listen, and
write/draw.
Ss post all their sticky
notes to a poster
labeled “DAY 1: AIR IS
STUFF.”
Ss take home their
fountains.
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
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Take to the Skies, Day 2
Air Has Weight
Class
Big Idea
Big Questions
Why does air hold some things up?
Conceptual Takeaways
A big stack of air, like the atmosphere, is pulled down by gravity,
and pushes on everything it touches, in all directions. We feel this
push as pressure. Air is surprisingly heavy! Gas balloons and hot
air balloons float because they are lighter than the air they
displace.
Session Objectives
Ss can depict and describe air as a substance, occupying space,
having mass, and exerting force. Ss can use evidence from
observations to support their claims.
Assessment
Ss build hot-air balloons and adjust them to fly higher or longer.
Ss make predictions and propose explanations for phenomena,
discussing the role of atmospheric pressure.
Ss draw something that uses air and describe how the air moves
within it, and the role of atmospheric pressure in the system.
Materials
Cups, cards, easel paper, buckets, water, towels, paper towels,
meterstick, balloons, tape, string, air column poster, hardboiled
eggs or small balloons, straws, wide-mouth bottle, matches,
paper napkin or newspaper, plastic shopping or trash bags,
paperclips, markers, blowdryer, sticky notes
Timing Instructor Does Students Do
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Well in
advance
10m before
class begins
2m before
class begins
0:00-0:05
0:05-0:15
0:15-0:25
0:25-0:35
Prepare the materials, print printouts,
organize everything for quick
deployment.
Arrive, unpack, set up. Choose a space,
on a table or the floor, to spread the
tarp for water activities. Lay out craft
materials on a side table.
Welcome students, ask them to sit
down and wait to touch the materials.
Take attendance.
Cover a cup of water with a card. Flip it
and remove your hand – the card stays
up!
Tell Ss to try it themselves, with
different containers.
Draw a chart: Card Stays On/Card Falls
Off. Ask Ss to describe what they did or
used to make the card stay on, and
what caused the card to fall off. Write
what they say.
Divide Ss into two or three teams. Relay
race to fill a cup with water from a
bucket – using only upside-down cups.
Ss aren’t allowed to walk unless the
cups are inverted.
Does Air Have Weight? Use a meterstick
to balance two empty balloons. Fill one
up, and reattach it – which side is
heavier? Do this as a class group.
Point out poster: the mile of air sitting
on top of all of us, pressing down. Can
you feel it?
Ss begin to enter, and
sit down.
Ss try it themselves
(choose from a variety
of cups, including cups
with holes in them,
beakers with lips, etc).
Ss respond.
Ss plan strategy, and
run the race.
Ss assist in holding
meterstick, measuring,
predicting what will
happen.
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USS Hornet Museum Education Department 15
0:35-0:45
0:45-0:50
0:50-1:00
Demo: Shell-less hard-boiled egg (or
water-filled balloon about egg size) +
bottle + match + bit of folded
newspaper = sucked inside! Why?
To get the egg out of the bottle, tilt the
bottle, insert straw, blow air.
Build and fly hot-air balloons made of
shopping bags. Use paperclips to
weight down the open end, tie the
closed end together to make a dome
shape, decorate the outsides, use a
blowdryer to create hot air.
Cleanup.
Reflection circle. Ask Ss to draw
something they know from their lives
that uses air pressure, and tell about
how it works.
Ss watch, discuss and
propose explanations.
Ss build, test, assess,
alter balloons.
Ss clean up.
Ss sit, listen, and
write/draw.
Ss post all their sticky
notes to a poster
labeled “DAY 2: AIR
HAS WEIGHT.”
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 16
Take to the Skies, Day 3
Air is Fluid.
Class
Big Idea
Big Questions
Why does air hold some things up? (Days 2-3)
How is air like water? (Days 4-5)
Conceptual Takeaways
Air moves like water, pushes in all directions on everything
it touches, and sticks to itself and other things. Areas of
moving air can form vortices, flow in currents, or break up in
turbulence.
Session Objectives
h. Ss can depict or describe air’s motion as a fluid: flowing
like water, displaying adhesion and cohesion. They can
describe and suggest explanations for air’s movements,
incorporating ideas of weight, pressure, temperature,
viscosity, inertia, and adhesion. [Note: specific
vocabulary terms are not part of the assessment.]
i. Ss can manipulate air with tools, and alter their tools to
affect the behavior of the air. Ss can depict or describe
the interaction of the tool and the air.
Assessment Ss describe and discuss air entrainment.
Ss build and modify devices to better entrain air.
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
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Materials
Plastic bottles, water, buckets, ceramic mug, foam cups, tape,
rubber bands, balloons, plastic bags, oatmeal cans/coffee cans,
scissors, Xacto knife, markers, dry ice for demos, gloves, paper
targets, sticky notes, easel pad, pens/pencils
Timing Instructor Does Students Do
Well in
advance
10m before
class begins
2m before
class begins
0:00-0:05
0:05-0:15
0:15-0:20
0:20-0:45
0:45-0:50
0:50-1:00
Prepare the materials, print printouts,
organize everything for quick
deployment.
Arrive, unpack, set up. Choose a space,
on a table or the floor, to spread the
tarp for water activities. Lay out craft
materials on a side table.
Welcome students, ask them to sit
down and wait to touch the materials.
Take attendance.
Ask: How is air like water?
Have you ever poured water out of a
cup, and it runs down the side and gets
all over you? (Demo: do it, using a
ceramic mug)
Demo: Pour water across the side of a
cylinder, showing how the stream
bends around the curve. Ask for
predictions, then repeat around a
square bottle. How does the stream
behave?
Hand out Styrofoam cups and demo
Ss discuss and
respond.
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USS Hornet Museum Education Department 18
airfoils, show Ss how to use them to
bend an air stream.
Discuss: Why do air and water move like
that around objects? (Surface of the cup
‘grabs’ nearest layer of fluid particles,
traveling particles carry momentum
between adjacent streams of fluid)
Hand out another cup each, tape,
rubber bands. Demo build of foam
spinner: two cups joined by the small
ends with tape. Ask Ss to build their
own. Help with launching tips (Ss can
simply throw their spinners if rubber
bands are too hard).
Challenge: Inflate a long plastic bag
with your breath. (tip: Blow one big puff
into the open end from a few inches
away)
Build vortex cannons from containers,
balloons/latex gloves, rubber
bands/tape. Cut a hole in the closed
end, cover the open end with the
rubber, secure with bands or tape. Set
up paper targets to shoot down.
Cleanup.
Reflection: See/Think/Wonder. Ss fill
out three sticky notes: “What I See,”
“What I Think,” “What I Wonder”.
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Take to the Skies, Day 4
When You Push Air, It Pushes You.
Class
Big Idea
Big Questions
What does it mean to fly?
Why are wings shaped like that?
Conceptual Takeaways
Every action – like pushing on the air – has a reaction: the air
pushes back. Mechanical energy transfers to, from, and
through air in characteristic ways. More air pushed into one
place pushes more strongly – its pressure increases.
Session Objectives
j. Ss can build flying objects, observe their flight, and alter
them to fly differently. Ss can model, via depiction or
description, how their flying object interacts with the air.
k. Ss can compare different flying objects, and create
explanations of how their structures cause the
differences in their behavior.
l. Ss can perform multiple tests on flying objects to assess
the effect of individual changes to a design, and
compare their results to find design strengths and
weaknesses.
Assessment
Ss contrast things that fly and things that don’t.
Ss evaluate accuracy and hang time of rocket designs, and
alter.
Ss describe what they changed and what the result was.
Materials
Easel pad, markers, Fly/Don’t Fly card sets, smoothie straws, small
straws, earplugs, tape, paper (squares, strips, sheets), Hoopster
demo/directions, pens/pencils
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
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Timing Instructor Does Students Do
Well in
advance
10m before
class begins
2m before
class begins
0:00-0:05
0:05-0:15
0:15-0:20
0:20-0:45
0:45-0:50
0:50-1:00
Prepare the materials, print printouts,
organize everything for quick
deployment.
Arrive, unpack, set up. Choose a space,
on a table or the floor, to spread the
tarp for water activities. Lay out craft
materials on a side table.
Welcome students, ask them to sit
down and wait to touch the materials.
Pass out Fly/Don’t Fly cards and ask
student groups to sort them into two
sets: things that fly, and things that
don’t.
Ask Ss to complete the sentences with
lots of ideas. Write the ideas on the
chart.
Pass out big straws, small straws, and
earplugs. Can you make the big straw
fly? (shove earplug into the big straw,
blow through the little straw into the
big one)
Brainstorm: How can we make the
straws fly farther?
Add wings: Provide paper squares,
strips, tape.
Challenge: Use paper strips to create a
Hoopster with ring-shaped “wings.”
Compare its flight to your straw rocket.
Set up launch course with a starting line
and two targets. Challenge: Land your
planes on both targets, or get as much
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 21
distance as possible.
Cleanup.
Reflection: Think of a way you changed
your rocket today. Draw a before and
after on two stickies, then describe how
you changed it and what the effect was
on its flight.
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 22
Take to the Skies, Day 5
Fast-Moving Air Pushes Less.
Class
Big Idea
Big Questions
Why does air hold some things up? (Days 2-3)
Conceptual Takeaways
When air gets moving, it spreads out, and uses its energy to
move faster rather than to push out on things around it.
This Bernoulli effect creates strange phenomena: as air flows
faster, it exerts less pressure within its flow.
Session Objectives
m. Ss can ask questions about Bernoulli effect phenomena,
create and evaluate possible explanations, and design
imaginary devices that might use the effect.
Assessment
Ss predict and describe Bernoulli phenomena and talk
about potential explanations.
Ss connect/extend/challenge day’s ideas.
Materials
Blow dryer, ping-pong balls, paper strips, paper sheets, cups,
straws, spools/funnels/blocks with drilled holes, pushpins, index
cards, balloons, string, tape, water, CDs or paper plates, Xacto
knife, scissors, hot glue, balloons, plastic bottle caps.
Timing Instructor Does Students Do
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 23
Well in
advance
10m before
class begins
2m before
class begins
0:00-0:05
0:05-0:15
0:15-0:20
0:20-0:45
0:45-0:50
0:50-1:00
Prepare the materials, print printouts,
organize everything for quick
deployment.
Arrive, unpack, set up. Choose a space,
on a table or the floor, to spread the
tarp for water activities. Lay out craft
materials on a side table.
Welcome students, ask them to sit
down and wait to touch the materials.
Take attendance.
Demo: blow dryer levitates ping-pong
ball.
Hand out paper strips and sheets; lead
Ss in strip levitation, tent blow-through.
“What happens when you…” “What do
you think will happen if…” “Try to…”
Station Rotation: Work in partner
teams: Predict first, then do, then
discuss what happened. Next, Ss in
pairs cycle through stations.
a. Ping-pong ball cup jump: Two
cups, 1 ball in nearer cup; blow
across its top and it’ll jump to
the other cup! (tip: blow sharply;
use short airplane-meal cups)
b. Fool the Spool/Ping-pong ball in
funnel; Hold a card against the
bottom of the spool (with a
pushpin stuck through the card
to keep it centered on the hole).
Blow down through the spool
and the card sticks to the
underside!
c. Balloon blow-between: Hang
two balloons from strings. Blow
between them and they pull
Take to the Skies: Exploring the Air Around Us
USS Hornet Museum Education Department 24
together!
d. Straw sprayer: Blow through a
straw across the top of another
straw stuck in a cup of water,
and spray water across the
table! (small cup, short straw in
cup)
Discuss: What did you see? What
happens when air moves fast?
Build: CD or plate hovercraft. Poke
some holes in a bottle cap, hot-glue the
bottle cap to a CD hole, pull a balloon
over it, and release!
Reflection: Connect/Extend/Challenge.
On one sticky, write about something
you know or remember that today’s
work reminded you of. On sticky #2,
write something that added something
new to your thinking. On #3, write a
challenge you still have.
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Take to the Skies, Day 6
We Can Use Air to Fly!
Class
Big Idea
Big Questions
How can we use air to fly? What can we do with air?
(Day 6)
Session Objectives
n. Ss can build flying objects, observe their flight, and alter
them to fly differently. Ss can model, via depiction or
description, how their flying object interacts with the air.
o. Ss can compare different flying objects, and create
explanations of how their structures cause the
differences in their behavior.
p. Ss can perform multiple tests on flying objects to assess
the effect of individual changes to a design, and
compare their results to find design strengths and
weaknesses.
Conceptual Takeaways
Whether you describe it as action-reaction, the Bernoulli
effect, or vortex flow, a moving object can use the air to lift
itself. The shape of a wing, or airfoil, changes how well this
works. When the angle of attack or angle of incidence
changes, the wing interacts with the air in different ways: it
can create negative, positive, or zero lift, or cause a stall as
turbulent flow increases behind the wing.
Assessment
Students compare performance between plane designs and/or
after changing control surfaces.
Stickies show aircraft and describe at least one of:
action/reaction, pressure differential, air entrainment.
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Materials Paper, whirligig template, sled kite template, paperclips, scissors,
straws, tape, plastic shopping bags/mini trash bags
Timing Instructor Does Students Do
Well in
advance
10m before
class begins
2m before
class begins
0:00-0:05
0:05-0:15
0:15-0:20
0:20-0:45
0:45-0:50
0:50-1:00
Prepare the materials, print printouts,
organize everything for quick
deployment.
Arrive, unpack, set up. Choose a space,
on a table or the floor, to spread the
tarp for water activities. Lay out craft
materials on a side table.
Welcome students, ask them to sit
down and wait to touch the materials.
Take attendance.
Challenge: This paper falls too fast!
How can we change its shape to
slow it down?
Hand out paper and give 3 minutes
to create the slowest-falling paper
possible. Scissors, tape, paperclips.
Build: Whirligigs, from template and
freehand.
Ask what happens when you change
the angles of the whirligigs’ wings,
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add more paperclips, make them
bigger, etc.
Build: Sled kite.
Test different numbers and
placements of tails, speed of flight,
etc.
Cleanup.
Reflection (sticky note 1): Draw an
aircraft, and describe how it stays in
the air. (sticky note 2) Draw or write
one thing you remember from this
whole course!
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Standards
From the Next Generation Science Standards
Grade
2 Structure and Properties of Matter
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
2-PS1-2. Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to
determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an
intended purpose.* [Clarification Statement: Examples of properties could include, strength,
flexibility, hardness, texture, and absorbency.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment of quantitative
measurements is limited to length.]
K-2 Engineering Design
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to
illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve
a given problem.
K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the
same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each
performs.
3 Forces and Interactions
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the
effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of a ball can make it start
moving; and, balanced forces pushing on a box from both sides will not produce any motion at all.]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size, or direction of forces.
Assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to
gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.]
5 Structure and Properties of Matter
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Students who demonstrate understanding can:
5-PS1-1. Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too
small to be seen. [Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence could include adding air to expand a
basketball, compressing air in a syringe, dissolving sugar in water, and evaporating salt water.] [Assessment
Boundary: Assessment does not include the atomic-scale mechanism of evaporation and condensation or
defining the unseen particles.]
3-5 Engineering Design
Students who demonstrate understanding can:
3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a
problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and
constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled
and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or
prototype that can be improved.
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References
Social media icons via https://codepen.io/ruandre/pen/howFi
Water bottle fountain. http://www.learnwithplayathome.com/2012/07/science-
for-kids-water-bottle-fountain.html
How Things Fly http://howthingsfly.si.edu/ Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
https://airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/howthingsfly.pdf
A Physical Description of Flight, Revisited. Eberhardt, Scott and Anderson, David.
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/Flightrevisited.pdf
How Airplanes Fly: A Physical Description of Lift.
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/airflylvl3.htm
NASA’s Aeronautics Educators Guide.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Aerona
utics.html
NASA’s Beginners’ Guides. https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-
12/airplane/index.html
USNA STEM Center for Education and Outreach. https://www.usna.edu/STEM/
K/F Airfoil Paper Plane.
http://hilaroad.com/camp/projects/paperplane/paperplane.html
Vortex generators. http://www.eskimo.com/%7Ebillb/amateur/vortgen.html#links
and http://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/physicsathome/cannon.cfm
Egg in a bottle. http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/egg-in-
bottle/ http://www.weatherwizkids.com/experiments-egg-bottle.htm
Physics demos.
http://physics.wfu.edu/demolabs/demos/avimov/bychptr/chptr4_matter.htm
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Coanda effect, not Bernoulli. http://www.aerodynamiclift.com/
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Appendix: Class Materials
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Day 1
Personal Balloons
Station Rotation: Air is Stuff?
Lying on Air
Ribbon Fan
Blowdryer Waves
Pneumatic Syringes
Bottling Paper Challenge
Balloon-in-a-Bottle Challenge
Day 2
Upside-Down Cups
Balloon Balance
Air Pressure Poster
Straw-Cup Relay
Day 3
Bending Water/Bending Air
Foam Cup Backspinner
Yogurt Cup Air Gun
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Day 4
Paper Copters
Soda Fountain
Fizzy Pop Rockets
Day 5
Station Rotation: Bernoulli Effects
Tent Collapse
Strip Levitation
Ping-Pong Cup Jump
Fool the Spool
Balloon Blow-Between
Straw + Ping-Pong Levitation
Straw Sprayer
Day 6
Foam Gliders
Hoopster
Airfoil Posters
Airfoiler